Decathlon UK sales leap, but one-off cost means losses grow

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jan 5, 2023

The UK subsidiary of France-based Decathlon has reported turnover up 25.4% for the year ended 31 December 2021 at £283 million, more than making up for the 4.5% decrease it saw in 2020 at the height of the pandemic.

Gross profit rose to £112 million from £80.7 million and operating profit was £2.6 million, after a loss of £3 million in the previous year.  But the final net loss for the year was £5.8 million, wider than the £2.2 million of the previous period.

Why was that? The company said the implementation of IFRS 16 “generated significant exceptional losses of £5.9 million through the impairment of right-of-use assets”. Throughout the year, it also made big investments in its stores, operations, digital, and staff. 

But it said that its positive operating profit confirms that the strategies it has put in place are paying off.

In the previous year, as mentioned, turnover had fallen 4.5%, although this wasn't bad given the circumstances, as the initial wave of the pandemic hit retail hard. Given that the previous year’s revenue had risen 10.3% in Britain, its latest jump is another sign of a business that’s doing well in the country.