DFS more than doubled its pre-tax profit to £14.1 million during the 22 weeks to 30 December.

The furniture retailer stated that all of its brands achieved like-for-like revenue growth in the period, leading to overall growth of 6.6 per cent. Online revenue rose by 22.6 per cent.

Chief executive Tim Stacey commented: “The benefits of our investments in our online channels, delivery networks and the development of our brands help mitigate the impact of a market which we expect to remain particularly challenging in 2019 given the current political and economic uncertainty.

“Notwithstanding a softer start to 2019, and assuming no weakening of this environment, our profit expectations for the financial year remain unchanged,” he added.

During the period, DFS invested in operational technologies such as artificial intelligence-enabled delivery scheduling.

A company statement last year revealed that more than 80 per cent of its customers now conduct research online before visiting a DFS showroom, with mobile now accounting for 80 per cent of web traffic.

DFS uses Swoosh visualisation technology online, and has implemented logistics software from Apollo to underpin operations, including van scheduling.

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