This UK store shut down its own website – and profits jumped 47%
Key Points
- The Works stopped selling online in March 2026 and now trades only through its 508 physical stores
- Underlying profit jumped 47% to £14.0m in the year to 3 May 2026, with revenue up 3.1% to £260m
- Like-for-like sales are up 8.8% in the first 11 weeks of the new financial year
- The retailer plans to open a net 10 stores in FY27 and grow to more than 560 by FY30
- It will also drop ".co.uk" from its company name at the upcoming AGM
The Works grew underlying profit 47% to £14 million in the year to 3 May 2026 after shutting down its own website as a sales channel and going bricks-and-mortar only.
The retailer, which sells books, toys, arts and crafts, and stationery across 508 UK and Ireland stores, closed TheWorks.co.uk to transactions on 20 March 2026 and converted it into a browse-only shop window.
The decision followed an internal review which found the online channel generated less than 10% of total sales, lost money, and had suffered years of disruption from two different third-party fulfilment providers. The group concluded the costs and complexity of running the operation outweighed anything it brought in.
The bet has paid off quickly and The Works reported like-for-like sales growth of 5.3% in its final quarter and 8.8% in the first 11 weeks of the new financial year, and said the website closure has helped push customers into stores.
How the numbers stack up
Revenue from continuing operations rose 3.1% to £260 million, with like-for-like sales up 3.3% against a 0.1% decline for the wider UK non-food retail market reported by the British Retail Consortium.
Pre-IFRS 16 adjusted EBITDA climbed 47% from £9.5 million to £14 million, driven by the sales growth, a 240 basis point improvement in product margin and a £2 million cost reduction programme.
These gains offset higher National Living Wage and employer National Insurance costs, which added £5.4 million to store payroll alone.
Adjusted profit before tax rose 44% to £7.2 million. Statutory profit before tax fell 28% to £6.8 million, though this reflects a £4.5 million one-off credit in the prior year from impairment reversals rather than weaker trading. Including the costs of winding down the online business, total profit after tax came in at £1.4 million.
The discontinued online channel shows why the Board pulled the plug. It generated £13.9 million of revenue in its final year but recorded a gross loss of £1.6 million, and closure costs of £1.5 million covered redundancies, onerous contracts and shifting stock back to the retail distribution centre.
Doubling down on the high street
The Works now describes its store estate as the “lifeblood” of the business, with over 98% of stores profitable and new openings paying back their investment in under two years.
The retailer opened 14 stores, closed nine and relocated three during the year, and plans a net 10 additional stores in FY27 through roughly 25 openings and 15 closures. It targets more than 560 stores by FY30, with a longer-term ambition of at least 600, and an EBITDA goal of at least £22.5 million by FY30.
The strategy also leans into growing anxiety about screens. The Works has repositioned itself as a retailer of “affordable, screen-free activities”, citing its own research showing 40% of parents want to cut their children’s screen time, alongside the government’s June 2026 announcement that it intends to ban social media for under-16s.
CEO Gavin Peck said FY26 was “a pivotal year” for the business, supported by increasing demand from families for screen-free activities.
The company will complete the break from its online past at its upcoming AGM, where shareholders will vote on changing its name from TheWorks.co.uk plc to TheWorks plc.
