Blue Diamond have announced pre tax profits of £31.4m for 2025, up 44% year on year, on sales of £395m.
The group added 6 centres during the year and Chairman Simon Burkes reports that they ended the year with their lowest debt ratio since 2021.
He goes on to say: “Like for like (LFL) sales were +6.1%, with +6.3% in Garden Centres and 5.8% in Restaurants. Total sales were up by almost 19%. This is again an outperformance of the market in terms of LFL sales, albeit by a small margin this year. Performance was strong across almost all departments, with the Garden Leisure category, which includes furniture and barbeques, achieving a remarkable 20% LFL growth.”
Managing Director Alan Roper explains: “Profit increased by 44% (£9.6m) to £31.4m, while EBITDA rose from £34.7m to £46.9m, underlining the inherent strength of the business and the effectiveness of disciplined commercial management.
“This outcome was achieved despite a £3m adverse impact on profit resulting from above inflation increases in the National Living Wage of 6.7% and higher employers’ National Insurance contributions introduced in April. Through focused management action, this impact was fully absorbed within the year.
“During 2026, the focus will be on staff efficiency benchmarking against internal best in class performance, with the expectation that this will deliver further profit optimisation without compromising service quality.
“Our priority is to continue enhancing profit through profit gap reduction and overhead optimisation. Lowering energy expenses remains an ongoing objective, achieved through the adoption of advanced energy saving technologies.
“As we move into 2026, our strategic priorities are clear and focused on strengthening profit resilience within a structurally more expensive operating environment.”
Simon Burke concludes his Chairman's report: “I want to thank our colleagues, now numbering more than 5,000, who work in all weathers to deliver these results for us all. At our annual awards event in March, we had over 800 people attending. What was striking is that despite the significant increase in the size of the business, there is still the same great sense of enterprise, energy and esprit de corps amongst the whole group, which bodes well for our future.”
You can read the full 2025 report and accounts at: https://www.bluediamond.gg/investor-relations/financial-reports