Specialist tackle retail giant Angling Direct has revealed sustained growth and strong sales for the first half of 2025.
Trading for the six months ended July 31st saw revenue climb by 17 per cent to £53.6m, compared with £45.8m for the same period last year. Revenue in the UK business – in store and online – was up 17.8 per cent in the second quarter as the company maintained its momentum from the start of the year into the early months of its peak trading season.
Total UK like-for-like sales grew 14.2 per cent, reflecting the strength of the company’s omni-channel proposition and increasing customer reach, evidenced through the continued growth of its MyAD customer loyalty club to over 496k subscribers at July 31st and reaching 500k in August 2025.
Strong store sales were underpinned by increasing levels of footfall. During H1 26 (the first half of its financial year), Angling Direct continued its new store opening programme utilising its strong balance sheet, opening a location in Chester in May alongside developing a strong pipeline of opportunities for the remaining financial year.
A further new store recently opened in Bradford and, as a result, the group now operates a total of 55 outlets across England and Wales.
UK online sales continued to scale, primarily from delivering higher transaction volumes through increased customer numbers, supported by MyAD’s continued growth.
Outside the UK, its first European store in Utrecht celebrated its first anniversary in May and it said customer store visits in the comparable two months (June and July) almost trebled as the Utrecht outlet further establishes its presence in the region.
However, the digital European market remains challenging and, as such, the digital European business continued its focus on its key markets of Germany and the Netherlands, with sales increasing in those territories.
It said the lower levels of cash year on year – £12.5m compared with £17m – reflected recent investment in line with the delivery of the group’s medium-term objectives and further investment in UK store roll out and new digital shelf edge technology.
A total of £1.1m was also returned to shareholders during the period following the initiation of a £4m buyback program in December 2024. In total, £1.7m has been returned thus far to shareholders at the date of this announcement through the buyback program, reducing the company’s shares in issue by approximately six per cent.
Steve Crowe, CEO of Angling Direct, said: “I am pleased to report that we have delivered another period of sustained progress against our medium-term objectives.
“Our increasing customer appeal underpinned by our loyalty fishing club, MyAD, and the associated growth of revenues in our existing UK stores and digital platforms, provides us with further confidence in achieving our medium-term UK revenue target of £100m.
“In the UK, we have continued to build on the strong momentum delivered in financial year 2025 by leveraging both our digital and physical footprint to increasingly join up our omni-channel customer offer. We have made pleasing progress on gross margin development against the inflationary cost base backdrop.
“Our focus remains on delivering the best value, flexibility and service for our customers and we are pleased to have opened two new stores to date, and the new openings pipeline remains strong.
“In Europe, we are pleased that our Utrecht store continues to scale customers and revenues as it trades through its first full angling season.
“We remain focused on delivering on our medium-term and during H1 26 we executed further strategic and operational changes to deliver upon these. The board also remains confident that the group is comfortably trading in line with full year consensus market expectations.”