Dike & Son is to go online by the end of the year.
The Nisa retailer said it was “optimistic” that shoppers on its newly relaunched website, dikes-direct.co.uk, would be able to order hampers and alcohol “just in time for Christmas”. In early 2014, it will launch a full online offer covering “everything currently listed in store”.
The site currently has a holding page for online ordering, with a message telling shoppers it is “moving with the times”.
Writing in the retailer’s accounts at Companies House this week, MD Andy Dike said: “The online grocery market is in the rudest health. It is therefore time to launch our online shop”.
He added trading had also been boosted by “the social media phenomenon”, after establishing Facebook and Twitter presences this year.
Dike & Son reported a 6.9% increase in pre-tax profits to £266,859 on sales up 5% to £7.5m in the year to 28 February 2013. This was despite “ferocious cut-throat discounting and relentless heavy advertising campaigns” from supermarkets near its store in Stalbridge, Dorset, as well as the closure of two steel companies resulting in the loss of 100 jobs in the area.
Dike & Son had fought back with “quirky, effective advertising campaigns which have been more apparent and stronger than before”.
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