Knowsley’s QVC marks up 4m deliveries record

Mar 5 2008 by Alex Turner, Liverpool Daily Post

Knowsley’s QVC marks up 4m deliveries record

THE Knowsley distribution centre of retailers QVC delivered a record 4m units in the last three months of 2007 as sales rose 7.5% to £110.7m for the quarter.

In total, 13.6m units were shipped in 2007 as the company’s UK operation achieved a 6.5% increase in sales to £352.6m.

The company would not be drawn on the profitability, but said margins remained “pretty stable”. In 2006 QVC UK reported a profit of £26.7m on sales of £331m.

Steve Hofmann, QVC UK’s chief executive, said: “It was a very good result for the company given the environment that a lot of the high street retailers faced.

“Overall the business is performing quite well.”

In May QVC UK moved into a new £20m customer operations centre, encompassing its call centre and distribution divisions, and on December 9 it enjoyed its busiest-ever day as it took more than 100,000 orders worth £4.8m.

“In 2007 we improved our on-air graphics, expanded our call centre and built a new high-bay warehouse with a 30,000 pallet storage capacity.

“On the web we introduced more video-rich content as well as a customer ratings and reviews service. We strive to maintain open, frank and long-term relationships with our customers, and to exceed their expectations during every encounter.

“We are confident that the next 15 years will be equally successful, having invested in our infrastructure and secured our contract on Freeview through 2022, providing us with a national platform to reach every home in the UK.”

QVC, which has operated in the UK for 15 years, claims 1m active customers from its potential audience of 22m UK households. Its parent company, Liberty Media, last week announced that QVC’s global revenues had increased 5% to £3.7bn.

Yesterday, Ideal Shopping Direct, a Peterborough-based operator of TV and internet shopping channels, announced a 5% fall in its annual pre-tax profits for 2007 to £5.8m despite revenues increasing by more than 13% to £96.9m.

alex.turner