Following today’s release of Victorian Plumbing’s figures for the six months ending 31 March 2026; Matt Walton, senior retail analyst at GlobalData, a leading intelligence and productivity platform, offers his view: “Victorian Plumbing has had a strong start to its FY2025/26, as it comfortably outperformed the UK bathroom market for the six months to March 2026 with sales up 10.5% to £168.8m. Retail sales, which excludes third-party revenue from its recently acquired haulage business Sovereign, grew by 9.2% and were driven this time by consumer sales, which increased 10%. Revenue in Victorian Plumbing’s tiles and flooring rage performed particularly well, and sales were up 84% to £14.0m due to increased awareness. This is an impressive feat considering the greater caution shown by Topps Tiles recently, as Topps commented on the “challenging environment”.
“The bathroom market leader’s recent and continued focus on tradespeople is the correct strategy as tradespeople offer more consistent growth and greater opportunities and Victorian Plumbing believes it is currently underrepresented in this sector. More targeted radio campaigns and continued sponsorship of sporting events and teams have helped the bathroom retailer maintain awareness among these customers. Changes that were introduced towards the end of the period, including offering third-party financing and a later cut-off for next day delivery in February and March 2026 respectively, will help Victorian Plumbing gain traction among larger trade customers.
“Profitability has held firm with overall gross margin only declining by 0.5ppts to 49.7% due to the launch of the MFI brand in July 2025 and the introduction of the Extended Producer Responsibility tax. The gross margin through Victorian Plumbing alone remained stable at 50.5% as it maintained tight cost control; for example, marketing spend declined again as a percentage of revenue to 28.0%, a 0.8 ppts reduction on last year. Brand awareness continues to improve with internal measures showing an increase of 1ppts on last year to 73%. This remains encouraging for the retailer as it sidesteps the pitfall other pureplays such as Wayfair have fallen into of investing significantly to maintain awareness to the detriment of profitability.
“A part of its business which will require significant investment in marketing however will be the MFI brand, which launched in July 2025. MFI was included within the Victoria Plum acquisition and offers a revenue stream outside of its core bathroom offer. Victorian Plumbing is pleased with its start as it recorded £0.5m in revenue and 545,000 visitors. The challenge remains to establish a brand image among younger shoppers and overcome previous negative brand perceptions among older shoppers. Developing this fascia without it becoming a millstone to its wider business will be one of the first challenges for new chief executive Stephnie Judge.”
