Sussex-based independent supermarket Jempson’s turnover surged by 12.5% to £32m for the year ending June 2020.
The group of supermarkets, bakers and cafés posted pre-tax profits of £1.3m for the same period up from £75k for the 18 months to June 2019.
Owner and CEO Stephen Jempson hailed the results as “outstanding”.
“We have made good progress on developing all aspects of the business during the period and have restructured the company to clearly define where we wish to develop further in the future,” he said.
Jempson’s switched its restaurant and café divisions to a takeaway model as the hospitality industry was shuttered, in a bid to curb the spread of coronavirus in March 2020. The business said that while it had been “hit by the pandemic this swift action resulted in minimal sales loss”.
It also launched a home delivery service for groceries, which racked up £1m of sales in the 2020 calendar year.
This led to the launch of a new dedicated online ordering platform last month, offering 7,000 SKUs.
Jempson added: “Sales in the supermarkets were experiencing solid growth prior to the pandemic hitting in March 2020. Our local suppliers, including our local producing farms for produce, dairy and meat, as well as our own scratch bakeries, enabled us to provide for our customers.”
Jempson’s Local Kitchen was launched in January 2021 offering 24 small-batch seasonal meals created by the group’s restaurant team while the cafés were closed and have since been made available to its online customers.
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