Revenue has risen while pre-tax profit has decreased at Dr Martens, according to preliminary results for the year ended 31 March 2021.
The Northamptonshire-headquartered company delivered revenue of £773m, up 15% on the prior year (£672.2m), seeing particularly strong growth (73%) from ecommerce, as customers moved online during the pandemic. Retail revenue, however, impacted by Covid-19 store closures and restrictions, declined by 40%.
Meanwhile profit before tax dipped to £70.9m, from £101m in the year prior.
Kenny Wilson, Chief Executive Officer, said: “I am pleased to be reporting our first results as a publicly listed company. The pandemic presented challenges to our operations and ways of working, and our priority throughout was to keep our people and consumers safe. I am very proud of the resilience, dedication and agility of our teams across the globe. This hard work, together with the investments we continued to make in our brand, resulted in revenue up 15% and EBITDA up 22%.
“Our DOCS strategy is delivering strong results. We continue to prioritise selling directly to our consumers, and, with retail severely impacted by Covid-19 restrictions, we focused our efforts on a step-change in ecommerce, achieving revenue growth of 73%, representing 30% of total mix. The investments and improvements we made in our supply chain in recent years, along with our multi-country sourcing model and close supplier relationships allowed us to quickly react to a rapidly changing environment, ensuring minimal disruption and maintaining good availability throughout.
“Our product durability and timeless design are rooted in a sustainable, long-term approach, and our brand custodian philosophy continues to guide the decisions we take. This underpins the financial guidance we laid out at the time of the IPO which is unchanged. Whilst the global trading environment remains uncertain, the strength of our iconic global brand means we look to the future with confidence.”