Eve Sleep revenue rises, losses narrow in 2020

Direct-to-consumer bed company Eve Sleep said its revenue improved 6% in 2020 to £25.2m, driven by 18% growth in the second half.

The AIM-traded firm said it saw record trading over the Black Friday period and the first week of the Boxing Day sales.

EBITDA losses narrowed by 81% to £2m, and the company’s closing net cash on 31 December totalled £8.3m, up from £8m year-on-year, which was bolstered by £0.3m of tax payments deferred until after the end of the year.

On the operational front, Eve said it expanded its sleep wellness ranges with new bed frames, sleep gifts and bedding, and entered the “sleep gifts” market with the launch of its 'well slept' range online and in partnership with Boots, reporting “strong” success.

It launched a retail partnership in France with Olivier Desforges during the year, and replatformed the UK and Ireland websites to the Shopify ecommerce platform, with the French website also completed post year-end, to secure a “more stable, scalable and lower maintenance” web presence.

Eve Sleep upgraded its supply chains to localise manufacturing for both markets ahead of Brexit, and restructured its warehousing and distribution to allow shipments to customers to be consolidated into one delivery, deriving lower costs and a better customer experience.

“Our business reset is largely complete and our growth has accelerated more quickly than we initially anticipated as a result of the shift to online and the current strength of the homewares market,” said chief executive officer Cheryl Calverley.

“We have exceeded our financial expectations for 2020, which were raised twice during the year, extended our product ranges, opened new sales channels, increased brand awareness, presence and recognition, with the winning of the Which? awards, and improved the strength and resilience of our technology, logistics and operations platforms.

“This is entirely down to the tireless dedication, creativity and commitment of our team, who moved seamlessly to home working from March, without the need to furlough staff or make redundancies.”

Calverley said that in 2021, the company would invest in growth initiatives across its business, particularly in France, where it saw “good opportunities” to scale, while continuing to build on the current UK momentum.

“We are confident in the near-term outlook and although there is a high level of uncertainty as to the macro-economic backdrop and spending habits of consumers in the second half of the year, we have entered the new financial period with a much improved proposition, a stronger balance sheet and a more resilient business.”

Eve Sleep said it would publish its full-year audited results on 18 March.

At 0834 GMT, shares in Eve Sleep were down 13.93% at 4.97p.