Flying Brands has delivered full year flat profits. In the
group’s results for the year ended 29th December 2006, it
announced that profits remained static at £5.3million. Sales
increased by 17 per cent to £42.4 million and internet sales
rose by 31 per cent to £5 million. In a statement to the
City, chief executive, Mark Dugdale, commented, “As has
been mentioned, our database of customers, particularly that of
Gardening Direct, is an ageing one and we are finding growing the
number of active buyers within the database increasingly
difficult through our traditional press advertising methods.
Declining media circulations and a maturing market place have
combined to make cost effective new customer recruitment
increasingly challenging, and this explains in part why the
recent performance of Gardening Direct has been volatile. We are
accelerating new customer recruitment from the internet with
substantial additional investment planned for developing the
online channel in 2007. This will involve adopting best practice
in terms of website technology, search engine optimisation and an
intelligent approach to e-commerce, and also ensuring that the
products we offer through our brands appeal to a web literate
generation at price points that will convert browsers to
buyers.”
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