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22 Mar 2024

Rob Brown, co-director of Dalby Forest Cycle Hub, a not-for-profit hire scheme has been nominated for the Tourism Superstar 2024 award, run by VisitEngland.

21 Mar 2024

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21 Mar 2024

As reported by Healthstores UK, new data contained in the 2024 Soil Association Organic Market report shows that independent retailers delivered an impressive 10% growth in 2023, with...

21 Mar 2024

An independent bottle shop and bar in Cheltenham has been named as the UK's Independent Beer and Wine Retailer of the Year 2024 at the Drinks Retailing Awards. 

21 Mar 2024

A number of organisations, including Bira (the British Independent Retailers’ Association), other trade associations, BIDs and unions have met with officials from the Welsh Government to...

21 Mar 2024

The British Independent Retailers’ Association (Bira) has reacted to data released by PwC and the Local Data Company exploring the state of the UK retail landscape.

8 Mar 2024

Daniel Blackham, editor of industry magazine BikeBiz, has been writing about his experience of completing the Cytech technical one qualification at training provider Spokes People in Milton...

6 Mar 2024

Cytech partner Activate Cycle Academy, the largest and most recognised training provider of bike maintenance and technical training courses to the UK’s cycle industry, recently welcomed a...

6 Mar 2024

The Greeting Card Association has reacted to a BBC Panorama programme lifting the lid on Royal Mail management prioritising parcel delivery over letters, which it says are in contradiction of...

4 Mar 2024

Pop star Kate Bush has been announced as an ambassador for this year's Record Store Day, on 20 April.

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Hobbycraft sales continue to grow

Posted on in Creative News

As reported in The Times, the British love of traditional hobbies and arts and crafts appears to be undimmed despite - and, indeed, in part because of - the relentless rise of modern technology, if the results of one national retail are any guide.

Hobbycraft said that it had achieved its eighth consecutive year of sales growth, thanks largely to the expansion of its burgeoning online business.

The figures mark the end of the tenure of Archie Norman as the company's chairman after more than four years. The retail industry veteran became chairman of Marks & Spencer last year. He has been replaced at Hobbycraft by Matt Davies, a former boss of Halfords and Pets at Home.

Revenue at the crafts retailer, which has 90 shops in the UK, rose by 6.4 per cent to £168.5 million. Its store-based business grew by 2.3 per cent, but its online business expanded by more than a fifth to represent almost 10 per cent of sales. The company opened four new shops last year.

Hobbycraft was acquired by Bridgepoint Capital, a private equity firm, in April 2010 and is now the leading specialist retailer of art and crafts products in the UK. It has three million members of its club scheme, which allows it to attract customers to its shops with workshops and demonstrations that it said had made its branches "social centres for craft". It uses the same social approach on its website, which Hobbycraft said it would develop to incorporate user-generated content such as photos and videos from its customers.

"We are very pleased with our financial and operational performance during the year," Dominic Jordan, chief executive, said. "Looking ahead, we will continue to invest in multi-channel expansion whilst continuing to improve our overall customer proposition and experience."

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