LFL’s First Quarter Sales Surpass Forecasts

Canada’s largest home retailer Leon’s Furniture Ltd. (LFL) Group has reported better than expected results for the first quarter of fiscal year 2025.

Revenue grew 3.1 per cent or $17.2 million year-over-year to $579.5 million from $562.3 million.

Same-store sales were also up three per cent over the same time period.

The improvement was primarily driven by sales in the furniture category and commercial appliance, warranty and insurance businesses. The strong overall performance was partially offset by softness in the mattress category.

“In Q1, our team’s efforts to ensure optimal inventory availability enabled us to drive growth, including a catch up on delivering sales booked during the fourth quarter of last year, leading to strong top-line results against an already robust comparable quarter,” said LFL president and CEO Mike Walsh in a statement.

From Q1 2023 to Q1 2024, same-store sales increased nine per cent.

The gross profit margin for the first three months of 2025 was 44.59 per cent compared to 43.87 per cent in the first quarter of 2024.

“Our relentless commitment to cost control and operational efficiencies, combined with lower interest rates and sales growth, delivered exceptional profitability despite a challenging operating environment,” said Walsh.

Adjusted net income for the quarter totalled $24.1 million, an increase of $7.7 million or 47 per cent over the prior year’s quarter. LFL cites strong sales growth, gross profit rate improvement and effective management of selling, general and administrative costs as reasons for the uptick.

The adjusted diluted earnings per share in the first quarter of 2025 was $0.35 per share, a 45.8 per cent year-over-year increase.

Given LFL’s strong and continuously improving financial position, Walsh told shareholders the company’s principal objective is to increase its market share and profitability.

“We remain focused on our commitment to effectively manage our costs but to also continuously invest in the business with growth initiatives that we expect will lead to increased traffic to both our online e-commerce sites and store locations across Canada,” he said.

LFL is the largest retailer of furniture, appliances and electronics in Canada. The Toronto-based retail group operates a total of 298 stores across the country under the following banners: Leon’s, The Brick, Appliance Canada, The Brick Mattress Store and The Brick Outlet.

The company also operates six websites: leons.ca, thebrick.com, furniture.ca, midnorthern.com, transglobalservice.com and appliancecanada.com.