Q4 recovery buoys Mr. DIY's 2021 sales increase to a 32 per cent plus

Malaysian home improvement retailer Mr. DIY enjoyed last-minute support in the fourth quarter to pull up 2021 revenues by 31.8 per cent to 3.373 bn Malaysian ringgit (MYR, EUR 708.4 mio), its latest financial report shows. The operator of eponymous stores in Brunei and Malaysia disclosed sales of MYR 975.388 mio (EUR 205.0 mio) in the fourth quarter, up by 26.94 per cent from the previous year. This was after seeing tepid sales in the third quarter, when revenues rose by a mere 3.8 per cent to MYR 768.02 mio (EUR 161.4 mio) owing to Covid-19-related store closures in that period. The fourth quarter revenues were 27 per cent higher than the prior quarter.

Mr. DIY attributed the strong showing in the last quarter to higher average monthly sales per store, higher average basket size, and the contribution of new stores. The retailer opened 166 stores across four brands - Mr. DIY, Mr. DIY Express, Mr. Toy and Mr. Dollar - in 2021, bringing its store count to 900 from 734 the previous year. This, however, falls short of the company's 2021 target of 175 stores.

In a statement, Mr. DIY chief executive Adrian Ong said that for this year, the company aims to open 180 outlets across its brands to end 2022 with 1 100 outlets.