MusicMagpie reported its earnings rebounded after a post-February rally helped the tech retailer shake off the impact of postal strikes and low consumer confidence.
Underlying earnings shot up 42 per cent to £2m in the second quarter, with the Stockport headquartered firm seeing pre-tax earnings rise 7.7 per cent over the entire period, dented by struggles in December and January.
MusicMagpie – an online retailer specialising in consumer tech and disc media – did however report a dip in revenue in both its key disc and consumer tech segments, down £4.8m and £4.5m respectively as it focussed “on cost control and increasing gross margins rather than growing revenues.”
Steve Oliver, chief executive officer and co-founder of MusicMagpie, said: “We are pleased with our performance in what is always the seasonally quieter half of the year for musicMagpie. It is especially gratifying to see that our profit improvement has been driven by an increased margin.”
“This has been achieved both by focusing on higher margin sales through our own musicMagpie online store, as well as the continued strong growth of our rental offering. While we remain very mindful of the current tough consumer environment, the momentum in our business as we head into H2 means that we are confident of achieving our full year expectations.”
It comes following a tough start to the year for the used-technology reseller, who said in March that Royal Mail postal strikes had dented its outlook for 2023, despite it narrowing losses.
The dispute between the Communication Workers Union (CWU) and Royal Mail saw the companies’ biggest ever walk-out earlier in the year, with the further walk-outs expected.
Low consumer confidence due to ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty and inflation also held the firm’s full year outlook back in March, however resistant demand for its consumer tech section saw customers to the that segment rise to 39,000, up from 24,000 in May 2022.
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MusicMagpie turns corner from postal strike misery with earnings boost