South Africa’s largest furniture brand, Lewis Group, has opened a record number of stores in the six months ended 30 September 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The group\u2019s store base increased to 958 following the opening of 40 new stores in the first half of the financial year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was the highest number of stores opened by the Group in any six-month period. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 40 new store openings mean that the group will meet its full-year store opening target within the first half. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The openings included 28 new outlets for Real Beds, the bedding specialist acquired in 2024, expanding the brand’s store base to 44.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The group\u2019s management also intends to open an additional 15 to 20 stores in the second half of the year, primarily in specialist bedding brands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although trading conditions remained constrained, it continued to invest in longer-term growth by expanding its store footprint. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The group also expanded the size of its debtors’ book, which expanded by 14.0% to R8.5 billion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over the period, the group saw its merchandise sales increase by 6.7% to R2.5 billion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sales in the traditional retail segment, which accounted for 89.7% of sales, increased by 6.4%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The specialising segment, which mainly contained UFO, Bedzone and Real Beds, grew sales by 9.1%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sales in stores outside of South Africa, which represent 15.1% of the store base, increased by 7.7% and accounted for 18.0% of total merchandise sales. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Credit sales also increased by 8.0% and accounted for 70.3% of total merchandise sales (H1 2025: 69.4%). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It maintained its strict credit-granting criteria in the constrained environment, with the credit application decline rate settling at 41.2% (H1 2025: 37.4%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The group\u2019s other revenue, cosisting of effective interest income and ancillary services income as well as insurance revenue, rose by 16.7% <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Total revenue, comprising merchandise sales and other revenue, increased by 11.3% to R4.8 billion (H1 2025: R4.4 billion).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The group\u2019s headline earnings increased by 16.0% to R335.1 million, while headline earnings per share rose 16.8% to 648 cents. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The rise in headline earnings per share reflected the positive leverage effect of repurchases undertaken in prior years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The group declared an interim dividend of 12.3% to 337 cents per share, based on an earnings payout ratio of 55%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The group warned that discretionary spending should remain constrained in the short- to medium-term as consumers face increasing financial pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This comes against the backdrop of continued uncertainty in global markets and political instability. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Although lower inflation and reduced borrowing costs are beneficial for consumers, high unemployment and limited job creation will persist in a low-growth environment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The group said that appealing marketing campaigns and promotions are planned across all brands to drive sales growth during the Black Friday and festive season. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Lewis Group has opened 40 new stores, as the group invests in long-term growth by expanding its new store footprint. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":843929,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[24182,24183],"class_list":["post-843927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-arbour-crossing","tag-lewis-group"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=843927"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":843934,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843927\/revisions\/843934"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/843929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=843927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=843927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=843927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Metric<\/strong><\/td> Change\/Value<\/strong><\/td> Details<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/thead> Revenue<\/strong><\/td> Increased by 11.3%<\/td> to R4.8 billion<\/td><\/tr> Merchandise sales<\/strong><\/td> Increased by 6.7%<\/td> to R2.5 billion<\/td><\/tr> Other revenue<\/strong><\/td> Increased by 16.7%<\/td> to R2.3 billion<\/td><\/tr> Gross profit margin<\/strong><\/td> Improved from 40.9% to 41.0%<\/td> (0.1% improvement)<\/td><\/tr> Satisfactory paid accounts<\/strong><\/td> Up from 81.6% to 82.7%<\/td> (1.1% increase)<\/td><\/tr> Debtors book<\/strong><\/td> Grew by 14.0%<\/td> <\/td><\/tr> Operating profit<\/strong><\/td> Increased by 21.4%<\/td> to R522 million<\/td><\/tr> Operating profit margin<\/strong><\/td> Up 250bps (2.5%) to 20.7%<\/td> <\/td><\/tr> Earnings per share<\/strong><\/td> Increased by 13.8%<\/td> to 619 cents<\/td><\/tr> Headline earnings per share<\/strong><\/td> Increased by 16.8%<\/td> to 648 cents<\/td><\/tr> Interim dividend<\/strong><\/td> Increased by 12.3%<\/td> to 337 cents per share<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Outlook\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n\n