Sofa retailer Poltronesofà reports that it is close to completing a £57m transformation of 96 UK stores, overhauling ScS' national presence, with the transformation of the sofa collection of offer and the introduction of an 'any sofa, any fabrics' offer for UK customers – with more than 250,000 possible choices.
The Poltronesofà group operates over 310 stores across Europe, and is a market leader in Italy and France, with a presence in Belgium, Switzerland, Malta and Cyprus.
In January 2024 the group, with its own cash, acquired the UK's ScS Group, representing the next stage of its European expansion plans.
The wider group reported European revenues of over €640m and EBITDA of €122m in 2023, before the ScS acquisition. Preliminary 2024 results for the European business show further EBITDA progress, and cash and financial investments of more than €550m available.
Poltronesofà says it is this financial strength that has enabled the extensive strategic investment in its UK store estate, which began in June 2024 and is set to be completed at the beginning of August with the refit of the last 15 stores, "setting the stage for sustained growth and a transformed customer experience".
The major refit features a store layout in the style of the rest of the group's European stores, with a modern look. The company says it has also improved the quality and style of its collection as it focuses on delivering the right offer to UK customers.
Poltronesofà’s flexible 'any sofa, any fabrics' offer includes 66 highly customisable models. Each can be ordered in more than 200 different fabrics or leathers, with a total of more than 250,000 combinations.
The product and store overhaul, backed by the financial strength of the parent group, has also been accompanied by a strategic focus on the core sofa offering, the business withdrawing from flooring and dining.
The transformation has also involved detailed training for UK salespeople at the Poltronesofà 'university', which provides over 650 hours of courses at the group’s Forli HQ.
Trading in 2025 from the 60 stores refurbished in 2024 has been "extremely encouraging", says the retailer, "with significant sales increases in respect to 2024 and 2023".
Poltronesofà’s investment in the UK estate – with stores impacted by closure and clearance for up to 12 weeks on average – comes against a tougher trading climate and one-off acquisition and integration costs, temporarily lowering revenues and impacting profits in 2024. But, says Poltronesofà, the UK business is performing in line with management expectations, with a close to breakeven EBITDA performance on revenues of £233m in the 11 months from the acquisition date (30th January 2024), following the significant investment in the store refit programme.
Additionally, the business has no bank debt and a positive cash position, despite non-recurring costs relating to the acquisition and refits.
The company is also seeing a return to order growth in the current year in the refitted stores, and expects to be "highly profitable" in 2026 as it reaps the benefit of the first full year of normal trading after the major investment programme.
Poltronesofà's group CFO Luca Mazzotti says: “The financial strength of the Poltronesofà business across Europe gives us the ability to invest for growth in the UK and we are already reaping the benefits of that investment.
“Over 30 years in business we have two burning obsessions – the quality of our products and delivering value to our customers. Now we are bringing those two obsessions to our UK customers with amazing store experiences and a superb new range of products and fabrics.
“Poltronesofà acquired ScS to enter a key market and support the next stage of its development, providing the capital needed to accelerate its ambitions. This significant investment – in product, stores and staff - shows us delivering on those promises.”
