Anglers drift back to shopping in stores

Announcing a 10.2 per cent increase in revenues to a record £81.7 million for the full year 2024, Angling Direct Chief Executive Officer Steve Crowe said that although the company had seen its UK on-line revenue grow by 11 per cent to £32.9 million during the year, the company was starting to witness a drift back to physical retailing.

Despite this, 75 per cent of Angling Direct’s UK on-line revenue now comes from members of the company’s MyAD on-line site which was launched in June 2023 and currently has 270,000 members. The increase in on-line revenue was underpinned by a growth in the average transaction value.

Whilst the company is now the UK largest physical retailer with 47 stores in the UK, it had also continued to see a significant increase in retail thefts and was having to continue to invest in preventative measures including adapting store layouts and installing CCTV surveillance.

Company Non-Executive Chairman Andy Torrence said: “We continue to support the Angling Trust as lead sponsors for the “Get Fishing” campaign, which last year engaged over 27,000 new participants”.

He added: “We endorse the wide-ranging evidence that fishing can be a great way to improve all round wellbeing and we support bodies set up to encourage and enable those with disabilities, of any kind, to benefit from fishing. We have been particularly focused on supporting
Tackling Minds, a rapidly growing Community Interest Company focused on using fishing to help improve mental health.”

Written by Peter Cliff
With career in Public Relations and journalism, Peter worked for local, regional and national newspapers before moving into Public Relations. A regular contributor to several major angling publications over the years, he launched Fisheries.co.uk in 1999.