𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Angling Direct has hailed “strong momentum” as rising online sales helped support a jump in revenues for the past six months.

Shares in the company moved higher in early trading on Wednesday as it also reported stronger footfall in stores.

Steve Crowe, chief executive of Angling Direct, said the results showed “sustained progress” against the retailer’s targets.

The fishing product chain, which runs 55 stores in England and Wales, saw group revenues rise by 17% to £53.6 million for the half-year to July.

UK sales grew by 17.7%, lifted by a 21.2% jump in online sales to £20.6 million.

Meanwhile, sales from its UK retail stores rose by 15.4% to £30.5 million as they benefited from “increasing levels of footfall”.

Angling Direct opened a new store in Chester in May and another site in Bradford earlier this month.

The company said it is “comfortably trading in line” with market expectations for the current year.

Mr Crowe added: “In the UK, we have continued to build on the strong momentum delivered in full-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.”

Shares in the business were up 6.4% on Wednesday morning.