Revenue rose 6.8% to £418.6m in FY26, ahead of a market growing at 3% to 4% a year, and adjusted profit before tax rose 13.5% to £31.2m. We invested £23.4m in the business and ended the year with net cash of £36.4m and no borrowings.

On behalf of the board, I thank our 3,900 colleagues. Most of them work in stores where the weather decides how busy the day will be, and this year it changed its mind often.

Performance

Like-for-like sales grew 4.1% and online rose to 36% of sales. Gross margin improved, and savings at Huntworth helped us absorb higher wage and National Insurance costs. Statutory profit before tax was £28.9m (£25.8m). Anjali Mercer explains the results on page 25.

Dividend

The board recommends a final dividend of 6.2p per share. With the interim of 3.0p paid in November 2025, the total for the year is 9.2p (8.4p), covered 2.8 times by adjusted earnings per share and within our policy of 2.5 to 3 times. If shareholders approve it at the AGM, we will pay it on 3 July 2026 to shareholders on the register on 29 May 2026.

Strategy

The board reviewed the strategy during the year and made no changes to its four priorities. We opened six stores, and new stores pay back in an average of 2.6 years. Repairs rose to 48,000, the Club passed two million members, and one stock pool at Huntworth now serves every store and online order.

To see the plan at work, the board visited Huntworth in May, Fort William and our new Oban store in September, and Galway in November.

Culture and colleagues

Peggy Swift, a PE teacher, and Martin Hale, who made and mended tents, started the business in Dorchester in 1973. They sold boots and tents and hired kit to schools. Every store fits boots, 41 have a repair bench and 52 hire out kit, so the business still does much of what they did. Colleague engagement rose to 81%, and store turnover fell to 24% from 27%.

Ravi Dhanda, our designated non-executive director for workforce engagement, chairs the Colleague Voice forum of 14 elected colleagues. It met four times with Ravi and twice with the full board. Colleagues raised Sunday rotas, uniform comfort, a staff discount on Hale Again and safety when working alone in small stores, and management will report back to the board on each during FY27.

The board and the 2024 Code

FY26 was our first year reporting against the UK Corporate Governance Code 2024, and we complied with all of its provisions. The board did not change during the year. Provision 29, which requires the board to declare whether material controls operated effectively, applies to us from FY27. Management identified 31 material controls during the year and internal audit has started testing them, overseen by Fiona Garside’s Audit and Risk Committee.

Harbour Board Review, which has no other connection with the company, ran this year’s external board review. It interviewed each director and the Executive Committee, observed a board meeting and found that we work well together and challenge management openly. It recommended more board time on technology, especially the new merchandise planning system, and on succession below the Executive Committee. Both are in our FY27 plan.

I reach nine years on the board in 2028. The Nomination Committee, led for this purpose by Michael Adebayo as Senior Independent Director, will run the search for my successor. All directors will stand for re-election at the AGM.

Stakeholders

The section 172 statement on page 33 shows how the board weighed the interests of customers, colleagues, suppliers, communities and shareholders. This year’s AGM is at 11am on Thursday 18 June 2026 at Hale House, Dorchester, and the board will be there to answer questions.

Outlook

Like-for-like sales in the first ten weeks of FY27 are up 3.2%. We plan to open six stores, from Settle in the Yorkshire Dales to Killarney in County Kerry, and to bring in the merchandise planning system in stages. The board expects adjusted profit before tax for FY27 to be in line with current market expectations.

Revenue rose 6.8% to £418.6m in FY26 and adjusted profit before tax rose 13.5% to £31.2m. We opened six stores, finished the move to Huntworth and repaired 48,000 items of kit. I thank every colleague who made that happen, in stores, at Huntworth and at Hale House.

Trading in the year

Like-for-like sales grew 4.1%, with 5.0% in the first half and 3.3% in the second, and the weather explains most of the gap. A dry spring and a warm June sold tents early. August was wet and late-summer camping fell away, then a cold, wet autumn brought customers in for waterproofs, boots and warm layers. Flasks, head torches and socks led a good Christmas, and we went into January with less surplus stock, so the clearance sale was smaller than last year’s.

Online sales grew 16.5% and reached 36% of the total. The app took 44% of online sales, and customers collected 41% of online orders from a store. Hale and Swift, our own brands, rose to 61% of sales, and our net promoter score rose to 72 from 70.

Gross margin rose 50 basis points to 52.4%. Higher pay and National Insurance were our biggest extra costs, and savings from running one distribution centre and lower energy prices covered much of them. Anjali Mercer explains the margin, costs and cash flow on page 25.

Our four priorities

Our purpose is to get people outside more often and bring them home well, and the strategy turns that into four priorities. We kept them as they were. The strategy is on page 18, and the case studies from page 19 cover each priority in more detail.

1. Closer to the path

We opened in Hexham, Builth Wells, Oban, Okehampton, Bakewell and Westport in County Mayo. Each is in a town that walkers and campers pass through on their way out, and Oban and Westport are already trading ahead of plan. We closed our city-centre stores in Swindon and Reading when their leases ended, which leaves 128 stores. New stores pay back in an average of 2.6 years against our target of under three, and we aim to have 150 stores by FY30.

Each new store is in a town that walkers and campers pass through on their way out.

Tom Penhallow, Chief Executive

2. Kit that lasts

Our benches completed 48,000 repairs, up from 39,000, with an average turnaround of nine days. We added eight benches, so 41 stores now have one. Our product team designs new Hale jackets and packs around a short list of standard zips and buckles that every bench keeps in stock. Hale Again sold 6,200 pre-owned and refurbished items, against 1,900 in the first year of the pilot, and 68% of own-brand units used recycled or lower-impact materials, up from 57%. Our targets are 75,000 repairs a year by FY29 and 85% lower-impact materials by FY28. Most of our carbon footprint lies in the products we buy, and the sustainability report on page 35 sets out how we are reducing it.

3. More people outside

The Club grew to 2.1 million members, who bought 64% of everything we sold. Stores led 3,100 walks, up from 2,800, and schools and youth groups made 19,000 hire bookings at reduced rates, against 16,500. With The Open Paths Trust we also lend kit free to schools running their first outdoor trip. The Path Fund, paid for by 1p from every Club purchase and a share of hire income, gave £420,000 to 37 footpath, access and outdoor education projects. We aim to reach 3 million members by FY29.

4. A simpler business

A colleague in one of our smallest stores can now order anything in the Huntworth stock pool for a customer and have it sent to the store or to the customer’s home. Online availability was 97.2% and stock turn 2.2 times, against a target of 2.4 times by FY28. Next comes a new merchandise planning system, which will let buyers and merchandisers plan ranges, buy stock and allocate it to stores in one place. Technology change is a principal risk, so we are bringing the system in during FY27 in stages and running old and new processes side by side until each stage is proven.

Our colleagues

I joined Swift & Hale as a Saturday boot fitter in Exeter in 1994, so I know how much rests on colleagues who know the kit and the hills near their store. Of our 3,900 colleagues, 1,100 are trained boot fitters and 210 hold a mountain or lowland leader award. Each gets two test days a year to try new products on the hill, and their reports changed the hip belt on the Hale 45-litre pack for Spring Summer 2026 after it rubbed on longer days.

We raised the store base rate to £12.75 an hour in April 2025, so every colleague is still paid at least the real Living Wage. Engagement rose to 81%, store turnover fell to 24% from 27%, and RIDDOR-reportable incidents fell to 11 from 14. Through the Colleague Voice forum, chaired by Ravi Dhanda, colleagues in our smaller stores raised safety when working alone. We changed rotas at 31 of those stores so that nobody opens or closes alone and gave colleagues at the other seven personal alarms. In FY27 we will review with the forum how those stores are staffed at quiet times.

Huntworth

Our 320,000 sq ft distribution centre near Bridgwater, with a 1.9MW solar array on its roof, opened in phases from October 2024 and has served every store and online order since March 2025. In September we surrendered the lease on our old warehouse at Poundbury, in Dorchester, and offered every colleague there a role at Huntworth or Hale House. Receiving, storing and counting stock in one building saves handling and lorry journeys between sites, and lets us move tents or waterproofs quickly to the stores selling them. We added automated parcel handling during the year, and six of our nine delivery vans are now electric. Across the business, Scope 1 and 2 market-based emissions fell to 1,120 tonnes of CO2e from 1,380. Mike Trevail, our Supply Chain Director, and the Huntworth team kept stores supplied through the final stages of the move.

Where we need to do better

Only 94% of next-day deliveries arrived on time, and most of the late ones came in the December peak, when Huntworth handled its highest parcel volumes. We have added sortation capacity and changed carrier collection times before this year’s peak. The Colleague Voice forum also told us that Sunday rotas are still too rigid for colleagues with young families. This year store managers will plan Sunday cover with the forum’s input, and we will report on what changed.

Outlook

Like-for-like sales in the first ten weeks of FY27 are up 3.2%. We plan to open six stores, in Settle, Dolgellau, Pitlochry, Kendal, Buxton and Killarney, add six repair benches, take Hale Again to ten more stores and lead more than 3,300 walks. The merchandise planning system is the biggest change to our systems this year, and we will take it one stage at a time. The weather will move sales from month to month, as it always does. We expect adjusted profit before tax for FY27 to be in line with current market expectations.

Online sales grew 16.5% and store sales 2.0%. Why keep opening stores?

Stores fit boots, mend jackets, hire tents to schools and lead walks, and those services are a large part of why people join the Club. They also carry much of our online trade. Customers collected 41% of online orders from a store this year, and those sales count as online. When we open in a new town, online sales to Club members who live nearby tend to rise. New stores pay back in an average of 2.6 years. We will keep opening five to seven a year in the right towns, and close a store when its lease ends and the numbers no longer work, as we did in Swindon and Reading.

Do free repairs mean customers buy less new kit?

Some customers keep a jacket longer because we mended it, and we are comfortable with that. The lifetime repair promise is one reason people choose Hale waterproofs and packs, and we design and price them knowing they will come back to a bench. Repairs are free for members on our own-brand kit, and we charge for the rest. A repair also brings a customer into a store twice, to drop off and to collect, and many buy something while they are there. When someone no longer needs a Hale jacket, Hale Again can refurbish it and sell it on, and it sold 6,200 items this year.

Are AI assistants changing how people shop for kit?

Yes, and we list it as an emerging risk. More customers start by asking an assistant which boots suit wide feet or which tent will stand up to the wind on Dartmoor, and some never see a page of search results. We are rewriting our product information so that it answers those questions plainly, with weights, fit notes and waterproof ratings that a person or a machine can compare. Our repair guides and route advice answer the questions people ask, and give them a reason to come to us directly. We expect most customers will still want to try boots on before they buy, and that needs a store and a trained fitter nearby.

Size and growth

From industry data, we estimate the UK and Irish market for walking and camping clothing, footwear and equipment at about £3.9bn. It grows 3% to 4% a year, and our revenue grew 6.8% in FY26, so we gained share.

Demand follows the seasons and the weather. Tents and summer clothing sell from spring to August, and waterproofs, boots and insulated layers from autumn to January, with a gift peak before Christmas.

More people walking for their health

Many of the people now walking for their physical and mental health are new to it. They need boots that fit, a waterproof that works and, often, some advice and company. Every store fits boots, and our 3,100 led walks, free for Club members, give new walkers a safe way to start.

Holidays closer to home

Households are taking more of their holidays in the UK and Ireland, often camping or staying near a national park or the coast. They arrive in market towns with gaps in their kit. All six of our FY26 openings are in towns like these. Hire counters in 52 stores let families try camping before they buy a tent.

Careful spending, kit kept longer

Customers compare prices closely on basics such as socks and base layers. They pay more readily for boots and waterproofs, where a poor choice means a wet or painful day, and they expect it to last. A growing number also want repairs or second-hand kit. Our own brands, now 61% of sales, let us control price and quality. We completed 48,000 repairs in FY26 and resold 6,200 Hale Again items.

Wetter summers and milder winters

Wet summers cut camping and footfall, and mild winters cut demand for insulated jackets, while heavy rain at any time of year sells waterproofs and boots. One stock pool at Huntworth lets us move stock quickly to the stores where it is selling. Weather is a principal risk (page 49) and part of our climate scenario analysis (page 40).

New ways to find kit

Customers increasingly ask a search engine or an AI assistant which boots to buy, and some visit a retailer’s website only to pay. We are rewriting our product information in plain language, with weights, fit notes and waterproof ratings, and we treat AI-led discovery as an emerging risk.

Competition

We compete with national outdoor chains, sports retailers, online marketplaces, brands that sell through their own stores and websites, and independent specialist shops. Sports retailers and marketplaces tend to compete on price and range, brand-owned stores on their own products, and independents on local knowledge.

Our advantages are advice and being close to where people walk: most of our stores are in market towns near national parks and trails, where few large retailers trade. Customers cannot buy our own brands elsewhere, and the Club’s 2.1 million members account for 64% of our sales.

Sales grew in every product category and in both the UK and Ireland. Gross margin rose 50 basis points, and operating costs grew more slowly than sales despite a large rise in pay, so adjusted operating profit grew more than twice as fast as revenue.

Statutory profit before tax rose 12.0% to £28.9m (FY25 £25.8m) after £2.3m of adjusting items, which I explain below. We define each adjusted measure and reconcile it to its statutory equivalent on page 124.

Revenue

Revenue rose 6.8% to £418.6m. Like-for-like sales grew 4.1% (FY25 3.3%): 5.0% in the first half and 3.3% in the second, after a wet August cut late-summer camping. Most of the rest of the growth came from our six new stores, less the sales we gave up by closing Swindon and Reading.

Equipment grew 8.2% to £129.8m on the strength of first-half camping. Waterproofs and layers grew 5.8% to £142.3m and footwear 5.7% to £125.6m, both helped by a cold, wet autumn. Services (boot fitting, repairs, hire and led walks) grew fastest, by 11.2% to £20.9m.

Online sales grew 16.5% to £150.7m, taking the online share to 36% (FY25 33%), and the app took 44% of them. Store sales grew 2.0% to £267.9m. That split understates the stores, because customers collect 41% of online orders from a store and we count those sales as online. UK revenue rose 6.4% to £381.0m. In the Republic of Ireland revenue rose 10.9% to £37.6m, helped by the new store in Westport.

Gross margin

Gross profit rose 7.8% to £219.3m, and gross margin rose 50 basis points to 52.4% (FY25 51.9%). Own brands, which earn a better margin than the third-party brands we sell, rose to 61% of sales (FY25 59%) and added about 30bps. Lower freight rates added another 30bps or so: we agreed most of the year’s container contracts in early 2025, when rates from Asia were well below their 2024 peak. Buying more cautiously for the second half left less summer stock to mark down, worth about 20bps.

A weaker pound against the US dollar in the second half took off about 30bps. We buy about 38% of our cost of goods in dollars and hedge up to 12 months ahead, which delayed and softened the effect.

Operating costs

Adjusted operating costs (selling, distribution and administrative costs before adjusting items) rose 6.3% to £182.8m, a little slower than sales, so they fell from 43.8% to 43.7% of revenue.

Staff costs rose 8.2% to £96.4m (FY25 £89.1m). The National Living Wage rose 6.7% in April 2025, and employer National Insurance changes from the same month added about £2.3m, including increases that contractors passed on to us. The average number of colleagues rose by 200 to 3,900: 120 in stores, mainly in the new openings, 60 in distribution as online volumes grew, and 20 at Hale House.

Depreciation and amortisation rose £2.9m to £33.8m, mostly from a full year of depreciation on the Huntworth lease and on stores opened in FY25 and FY26.

Other operating costs, from business rates to parcel delivery, rose by £0.7m, although we had four more stores and 16.5% more online sales to deliver. Running one stock pool at Huntworth saved about £2.4m against the old two-site network, mainly through fuller lorries to stores and no more overflow storage with third parties. Energy costs fell by about £0.9m when fixed-price contracts agreed in 2022 came to an end.

Adjusted operating profit rose 15.5% to £36.5m (FY25 £31.6m), a margin of 8.7% (FY25 8.1%). Statutory operating profit was £34.2m (FY25 £29.9m).

Adjusting items

We treat an item as adjusting when it is material in size or nature and falls outside normal trading. The Audit and Risk Committee reviews how we classify these items each year (page 70). Adjusting items before tax were £2.3m (FY25 £1.7m).

Net store impairment was £1.5m. Our annual review of every store led us to charge £2.1m against four stores, mostly in larger town centres, whose sales and footfall have fallen behind plan, and to reverse £0.6m of earlier charges at two stores where trading has recovered. These amounts are irregular and rest on long-range forecasts, so we keep them out of adjusted profit. Note 16 shows how sensitive they are to our assumptions.

Leaving the former Poundbury warehouse in Dorchester cost £0.8m. That covers the payment to the landlord for surrendering the lease in September 2025, dilapidations and clearing the building. The section 172 statement on page 33 explains how the board reached the decision.

FY25’s only adjusting item was £1.7m of dual running costs during the move to Huntworth, which is now complete. The tax credit on this year’s items is only £0.2m because most of the impairment is not deductible.

Net finance costs

Net finance costs were £5.3m (FY25 £4.1m). Interest on lease liabilities makes up nearly all of our finance costs and rose to £5.9m (FY25 £4.5m) with a full year of the Huntworth lease and the new store leases. Fees on the revolving credit facility were £0.5m (FY25 £0.4m). Interest on cash deposits rose to £1.1m (FY25 £0.8m) because average balances were higher.

Taxation

The tax charge was £7.5m (FY25 £6.7m), an effective rate of 26.0% (FY25 26.0%). That is slightly above the UK main rate of 25% because some costs, mainly the store impairment, are not deductible, partly offset by the lower rate on profits in the Republic of Ireland. We paid £6.9m of corporation tax (FY25 £6.3m). The board approves our tax strategy each year, and we publish it on our website.

Earnings per share

Profit after tax rose to £21.4m (FY25 £19.1m). Basic earnings per share rose 12.4% to 23.6p (FY25 21.0p) and diluted earnings per share to 23.4p (FY25 20.8p). Adjusted basic earnings per share rose 15.6% to 25.9p (FY25 22.4p). The weighted average number of shares fell to 90.7 million (FY25 91.0 million) because the employee benefit trust bought shares to meet future share awards. It held 860,000 shares at the year end (FY25 630,000).

Dividend and capital allocation

The board proposes a final dividend of 6.2p per share (FY25 5.6p). With the interim dividend of 3.0p paid in November 2025, that makes 9.2p for the year (FY25 8.4p), an increase of 9.5%. Adjusted earnings per share cover it 2.8 times, within our policy of a progressive dividend covered 2.5 to 3 times. If shareholders approve it at the AGM on 18 June 2026, we will pay it on 3 July 2026 to those on the register on 29 May 2026 (ex-dividend date 28 May 2026), at a cost of about £5.6m.

Our priorities for capital are unchanged. We invest first in stores, refits, repair and systems where we can see a clear return. Next comes the progressive dividend, and after that we return surplus cash to shareholders. The board will consider a share buyback if net cash stays above about £30m through the seasonal low point. That comes in October, when we have paid for autumn and winter stock and are still waiting for Christmas trading. In October 2025 net cash fell below £30m, so we are not proposing a buyback this year. The board will look again with the FY27 half-year results in September 2026.

Cash flow

Cash generated from operations rose to £72.2m (FY25 £58.9m), mostly from higher profit. Working capital released £1.2m, against an outflow of £3.1m in FY25. Inventories rose by £4.8m, a little less than sales. Trade and other payables rose by £6.8m: trade payables were £3.8m higher because more spring stock arrived in the last weeks of January than a year before, and accruals were £1.8m higher, mostly for colleague bonuses. We did not change our payment terms with suppliers. After tax paid of £6.9m, net cash from operating activities was £65.3m (FY25 £52.6m).

Free cash flow, the cash left after capital expenditure, lease payments and net interest, rose to £15.8m (FY25 £11.5m). Lease payments rose to £26.7m (FY25 £21.0m) with the first full year of rent at Huntworth and the new stores. After dividends of £7.8m and £1.3m for shares bought by the employee benefit trust, net cash rose by £6.7m.

Capital expenditure

Capital expenditure was £23.4m (FY25 £20.5m), of which £18.3m was on property, plant and equipment and £5.1m on software. Each of the six new stores cost about £1.0m to fit out.

Balance sheet and leases

Net assets rose to £131.4m (FY25 £117.8m). Property, plant and equipment rose to £64.3m (FY25 £58.6m) as capital expenditure ran ahead of depreciation.

Inventories were £88.7m (FY25 £83.9m) and stock turn was 2.2 times, against our target of 2.4 times by FY28. The provision for slow-moving and obsolete stock rose to £4.1m (FY25 £3.6m), mostly for summer camping lines left over after the wet August.

Lease liabilities were £118.4m (FY25 £116.0m). We added £23.2m of new leases and renewals, mainly for the new stores, and paid £26.7m. Most store leases run for ten years or less, and the average time to the next break or expiry is about four and a half years, so we can review each store as its lease comes up. In the next two years, 41 leases reach a break, expiry or rent review. In FY26 we renewed 16 leases at rents 4% lower on average.

Net debt including lease liabilities fell to £82.0m (FY25 £86.3m), 1.2 times adjusted EBITDA (FY25 1.4 times). Adjusted EBITDA, which is adjusted operating profit before depreciation and amortisation, rose 12.5% to £70.3m (FY25 £62.5m). Lenders and investors use it to compare retailers with different mixes of owned and leased property.

Property provisions, mostly for dilapidations at the end of store leases, were unchanged at £5.3m: we charged £1.6m, used £1.2m on stores we left or handed back and released £0.4m. We have no defined benefit pension scheme.

Liquidity and the credit facility

We ended the year with £36.4m of cash and no borrowings. Our £40m revolving credit facility with Wessex Mutual Bank is committed to September 2028 with an option to extend, and we did not draw on it at any point in FY26. Its two covenants, on leverage and fixed charge cover, are tested every six months, and we met both with wide headroom. Liquidity, meaning cash plus the undrawn facility, was £76.4m at the year end.

Going concern

The directors have assessed whether the group can continue as a going concern to 30 April 2027. Starting from the FY27 budget, they applied the severe but plausible scenarios from the viability statement. The harshest combines two wet summers, a four-week cyber attack and a sharp fall in consumer spending. In that case liquidity headroom stays above £25m before any mitigating action, and we would not need the revolving credit facility. The directors have identified no material uncertainty and consider the going concern basis appropriate. The viability statement, covering the three years to January 2029, is on page 52.

Outlook for FY27

Like-for-like sales rose 3.2% in the first ten weeks of FY27. For the year as a whole:

• we plan to open six stores, in Settle, Dolgellau, Pitlochry, Kendal, Buxton and Killarney;
• we expect capital expenditure of £24m to £26m, covering the new stores, refits, more repair benches and the go-live of the merchandise planning system;
• pay will again be our largest cost increase, with an average rise of 4.5% across the workforce from April 2026;
• we expect an effective tax rate of about 26%;
• we expect adjusted profit before tax to be in line with current market expectations.

The board hears from stakeholders through management reports and at first hand. In FY26 directors visited Huntworth in May, Fort William and Oban in September, where they saw the Oban store open, and Galway in November.

Ravi Dhanda, our designated non-executive director for workforce engagement, chairs the Colleague Voice forum. The section 172 statement on page 33 shows how what the board heard shaped two of its decisions.

Customers

Customers want kit that fits, works in bad weather and lasts, with honest advice and fair prices however they shop. More of them now expect us to fix what we sell.

Much of this comes to us at the fitting stool and the repair bench. A short survey after every online order and a sample of store visits gives us our net promoter score. Our Trail Panel of about 3,000 Club members tests products and new catalogue ranges before we commit to them, and Leah Brennan, our Chief Customer Officer, reports customer measures at every board meeting.

Our net promoter score rose to 72 (FY25 70) and the Club grew to 2.1 million members. We added eight repair benches, and every Hale waterproof now has a PFAS-free finish.

Colleagues

Our 3,900 colleagues want fair pay, rotas they can plan around and a safe place to work. Many joined because they love being outdoors.

In FY26, 86% of colleagues answered our engagement survey. The Colleague Voice forum has 14 elected colleagues from stores, distribution and head office, and it met four times with Ravi Dhanda and twice with the full board. Colleagues can raise concerns in confidence through our Speak Up line.

The forum raised four subjects. Sunday shifts are now shared on a rota published at least four weeks ahead. A lighter uniform fleece, chosen after a trial in 12 stores, arrives this spring. We are still working out how to give the colleague discount on Hale Again. At the 38 smaller stores where a colleague could open or close alone, we changed rotas at 31 so that nobody does, and gave colleagues at the other seven personal alarms linked to a monitoring centre.

I raised lone working at the first forum because I opened up alone two mornings a week. By autumn our rota had changed so nobody does.

Carys Rowlands, Colleague Voice forum member, Llanberis

Engagement rose to 81% (FY25 80%) and store colleague turnover fell to 24% (FY25 27%). RIDDOR-reportable incidents fell to 11 (FY25 14).

Suppliers and their workers

Suppliers need steady orders and prompt payment to plan ahead. The people in their factories and mills need safe workplaces, fair pay and hours, and a way to raise problems without fear.

Hannah Coutts, our Product and Sourcing Director, leads these relationships, and her team visits every own-brand factory at least once a year. Hale and Swift products are made in 112 tier 1 factories in nine countries. Every supplier signs our Ethical Trade Code, and we check how it works through independent audits and anonymous worker surveys.

In June 2025, 42 suppliers came to our first supplier conference, at Huntworth, to hear our plans for repair, PFAS-free finishes and renewable energy at the mills. Audits found 14 serious issues during the year, mostly overtime above local legal limits at peak. Twelve are resolved and the other two have agreed improvement plans. We paid suppliers in 33 days on average.

Communities and the outdoors

Our customers rely on paths, stiles and bridges that someone has to look after, and the market towns we trade in want busy high streets and local jobs. Store managers work with national park rangers, path groups and schools near their stores.

The Path Fund gave £420,000 to 37 projects in FY26 (FY25 £360,000). A panel of colleagues, Club members and a trustee from The Open Paths Trust, our charity partner for youth outdoor access, decides the grants. Colleagues also gave 2,100 volunteer days, and our stores led 3,100 walks (page 19).

Shareholders

Shareholders look for steady growth in earnings and dividends, careful use of capital and executive pay that follows performance.

Tom Penhallow and Anjali Mercer present our results twice a year and meet investors after each announcement. They held 84 meetings with existing and prospective investors in FY26, and we hosted analysts and investors at Huntworth in June 2025. Helen Ashdown, our Chair, met five of our largest shareholders to discuss board succession and strategy. Private shareholders can question the whole board at the AGM. At the 2025 AGM, 96.4% of votes supported the remuneration policy and 97.1% the remuneration report.

Government and regulators

Government and regulators expect us to obey the law, pay the right tax, sell safe products and report honestly. New rules on packaging, chemicals in products and textile waste affect how we design and sell kit.

We deal with HMRC through our Customer Compliance Manager, and with the FCA and the FRC as a listed company. We answer government consultations through our trade associations.

Before the Competition and Markets Authority gained direct consumer enforcement powers in April 2025, we checked every environmental claim on our products, website and catalogue against its Green Claims Code. We paid our first fees under the UK packaging extended producer responsibility scheme and are preparing for a similar scheme for textiles. Product safety and regulation is now a principal risk in its own right (page 49).

In FY26 our Scope 1 and 2 emissions (market-based) fell 19% to 1,120 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e), 54% below our FY22 baseline. Scope 3 emissions, more than 99% of our footprint, rose 2% to an estimated 168,000 tCO2e as sales grew, but fell 5.5% per £m of gross profit, which is how our target is set.

We are behind the pace we set ourselves on living wages in our supply chain, and an audit found migrant workers at one factory who had paid recruitment fees for their jobs (page 39).

Our approach

We refreshed our materiality assessment in summer 2025, using a survey of 2,400 Club members and the views of colleagues, suppliers, shareholders and The Open Paths Trust. We scored each issue twice, for our effect on people and the environment and for its possible effect on our finances, and the Sustainability Committee approved the result in September 2025. Of the eight issues on the list, durability, repair and resale ranked first, followed by greenhouse gas emissions, pay and conditions in our supply chain, and chemicals in products. Water use and pollution at fabric mills moved up the list.

The Sustainability Committee, chaired by Ravi Dhanda, oversees our targets (page 73). Our Head of Sustainability leads a team of six and reports to Hannah Coutts, Product and Sourcing Director, because most of the work depends on how we design and buy product. An independent provider gave limited assurance over our FY26 energy use and Scope 1 and 2 emissions.

Kit that lasts

Own brands were 61% of sales in FY26. For Hale and Swift we choose the design, the materials and the factory, so that is where we can do most.

Materials

In FY26, 68% of own-brand units used recycled or lower-impact materials, up from 57%. A unit counts when its main fabric, or at least half its material by weight, meets one of our standards, such as recycled polyester or nylon, or organic cotton. The largest change was the move to recycled nylon face fabrics across Hale waterproofs for Autumn Winter 2025. Recycled fabrics strong enough for tent flysheets and the lightest Swift shells are still scarce, and these products are the main obstacle to our FY28 target of 85%. We are testing recycled ripstop with two mills for the Spring Summer 2027 tents.

Taking PFAS out

For years, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) were the standard way to make outdoor fabrics shed water. They do not break down in the environment, and regulators in the UK and Europe are moving to restrict them. Every Hale waterproof has had a PFAS-free finish since Spring Summer 2025, the last Swift lines with PFAS finishes sold through in FY26, and the Spring Summer 2026 Swift range is PFAS-free. An independent laboratory tests samples from each new range. PFAS-free finishes need reproofing more often, so Hale waterproof labels now carry reproofing instructions and our repair benches offer the service.

Repair

Hale waterproofs and packs carry a lifetime repair promise, and Club members get free repairs on own-brand kit. We completed 48,000 repairs (FY25 39,000), with an average turnaround of nine days, and eight new benches took us to 41 stores with one.

Hale products are now designed to a repair standard. Zips can be replaced without unpicking the seam tape, buckles clip on, and we keep spare parts for at least seven years after a line ends. Technicians log the commonest faults on each product every month, and the product team reads the log before reordering.

People bring a jacket in expecting me to say it’s had it. Usually it’s a zip or a lifted seam, and they have it back the following week.

Mared Pritchard, repair technician, Betws-y-Coed

Packaging

Of our online packaging, 92% can be recycled at the kerbside, and single-use plastic in own-brand packaging is down 61% since FY22. Hale clothing ships in paper bags, and in FY26 we stopped using plastic hangers for own-brand products sent to stores. Most of the plastic left is protective film on footwear and tent poles. UK extended producer responsibility for packaging began in 2025. The EU has agreed rules requiring similar schemes for textiles in member states, including Ireland, and the UK is considering one.

Lower-carbon business

Scope 1 and 2 emissions (market-based) fell 19% to 1,120 tCO2e, and energy use fell 3% to 14,600 MWh, although we ended the year with 128 stores against 124. We do not count carbon offsets towards any of our targets.

The 1.9MW solar array on the Huntworth roof, commissioned in January 2025, generated 1,640 MWh in its first full year, about two fifths of the site’s electricity. We fitted heat pumps in nine more stores during refits, making 22. Every store has LED lighting, and new stores open with heat pumps and no gas connection. Gas heating remains in 19 stores, mostly older buildings, and at Hale House. Three more of our nine delivery vans became electric in FY26, making six.

Renewable electricity rose to 78% of the electricity we use (FY25 71%). Apart from our own solar power, we buy it on supply contracts backed by Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin in the UK and guarantees of origin in Ireland. The rest is used in stores where the landlord buys the electricity, and in our Irish stores, whose contract renews in September 2026.

To meet the FY30 target we need to cut a further 875 tCO2e, mostly by switching the remaining stores to renewable electricity, replacing the last gas heating and electrifying the last three vans by FY28. Refrigerant leaks from air conditioning are harder to stop, so we fit units with lower global warming potential refrigerants when we refit a store.

How we measure

We report energy use and emissions under the Companies (Directors’ Report) and Limited Liability Partnerships (Energy and Carbon Report) Regulations 2018, following the GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard and its Scope 2 Guidance. Our boundary, set by operational control, covers all our stores, the Huntworth distribution centre, Hale House and our vans. We calculate emissions from metered and invoiced energy use with the UK government’s greenhouse gas conversion factors for company reporting for the relevant year, and country-specific grid factors for the Republic of Ireland. Market-based Scope 2 uses supplier-specific factors where guarantees of origin back our electricity, and residual mix factors elsewhere. Scope 1 covers natural gas, refrigerant losses and van fuel. Energy use covers electricity, gas and transport fuel, and 91% of it was in the UK. Scope 3 is estimated from activity data from our top 30 suppliers and spend-based factors for everything else, so it is less precise than Scope 1 and 2. We would restate the FY22 baseline if a change in method, data or group structure moved it by more than 5%; there was no restatement in FY26. Our intensity ratio is Scope 1 and 2 location-based emissions per £m of revenue.

Scope 3 and our suppliers

Purchased goods make up 79% of our Scope 3 emissions, mostly the energy used to spin yarn and to dye and finish fabric, plus the raw materials themselves. Scope 3 intensity fell to 766 tCO2e per £m of gross profit in FY26, 23% below FY22 and in line with the path to a 55% cut by FY32.

Most of that cut has to happen at mills and factories we do not own. Our top 30 suppliers, 78% of own-brand cost, report their energy use and emissions to us every year, and each agreed a reduction plan with us in FY26. We concentrate on the 26 fabric mills behind them, because dyeing and finishing need a lot of heat and many mills still burn coal to raise it. Twelve now use renewable electricity for at least half their needs (seven a year earlier), and four have replaced coal-fired boilers. We pay for energy audits at mills that ask, and from FY27 our cost negotiations will allow for upgrades that cut emissions. Air freight was under 1% of inbound volume.

People who make our kit

Hale and Swift products are made in 112 tier 1 factories in nine countries: Vietnam, China, Bangladesh, Indonesia, India, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, Portugal and Romania. Vietnam and China account for 61 of them. We have also mapped every tier 2 mill that makes fabric for our own brands, and we publish both lists on our website twice a year.

Standards and audits

Every factory signs our Ethical Trade Code, based on the International Labour Organization’s core conventions, and must pass an independent social audit before we place an order. We audit high-risk factories every year and the rest at least every two years, and at least a third of audits are unannounced or semi-announced. The 94 audits in FY26 raised 612 findings, mostly on working hours, fire safety and health and safety records, and our ethical trade team of four in Dorchester and Ho Chi Minh City follows up each corrective action plan on site.

Two findings were zero-tolerance issues. One factory kept using a subcontractor we had not approved, so we moved its work elsewhere at the end of the season. The other concerned recruitment fees.

Modern slavery

Forced labour is the most serious human rights risk in our supply chain, especially for migrant workers left in debt by recruitment fees paid to agents. In June 2025 an unannounced audit at a tier 1 factory in Taiwan found that 46 migrant workers had paid such fees. The factory repaid them in full, £61,000 in total, by December 2025. An independent auditor interviewed the workers to confirm they had the money, and the factory now recruits only through agencies that charge the employer. We have since added the employer-pays principle for recruitment costs to our Ethical Trade Code, trained all our sourcing and ethical trade colleagues on modern slavery and given workers at 44 tier 1 factories an independent, anonymous helpline. Our modern slavery statement is on our website.

Living wages

In several countries we buy from, the legal minimum wage is not enough to support a family. We compare take-home pay at our 18 strategic factories, which make 59% of own-brand units, with recognised regional living wage benchmarks. Five of the 18 pay at or above the benchmark on average, and across all 18 pay is 89% of it. We are behind our target of all 18 by FY30, and part of the gap comes from our own buying. Since September 2025 we have costed labour separately in negotiations with four of the factories, so that price talks do not squeeze it, and we will do the same with all 18 in FY27. Fixing the Autumn Winter 2026 order calendar earlier than usual also cuts the overtime factories need at their busiest.

Our people and communities

Our stakeholder report on page 31 covers colleague pay, engagement and the Colleague Voice forum. Our median gender pay gap at the April 2025 snapshot was 3.9%. Women make up 54% of our 3,900 colleagues, 45% of store managers and 42% of senior leadership. RIDDOR-reportable incidents fell to 11 from 14, mostly manual handling injuries in stockrooms and at Huntworth or slips on wet store floors.

The Swift & Hale Path Fund, paid for by 1p from every Club purchase and a share of hire income, gave £420,000 to 37 projects (FY25 £360,000), including path repairs on the Cleveland Way and the Pembrokeshire Coast Path. Colleagues gave 2,100 volunteer days.

Governance

The board is responsible for our response to climate change and considers it when setting strategy, approving the budget, the three-year plan and major capital projects, and reviewing the principal risks. Climate was on the agenda at four of its nine meetings in FY26. In July 2025 the directors had training from an external adviser on UK SRS and transition plans, and in September the board reviewed the updated scenario analysis.

Management’s role

Tom Penhallow, Chief Executive, is accountable to the board for climate strategy and performance. Anjali Mercer, Chief Financial Officer, chairs the Climate and Sustainability Steering Group, which met six times in FY26. Its members are four other Executive Committee directors, the Head of Sustainability, the Group Risk Manager and the Head of Property. The group keeps the climate risk register, runs the scenario analysis, tracks our targets and signs off carbon data each half year, and it reports to the Executive Committee and the Sustainability Committee. Each target belongs to the director who controls the emissions: Hannah Coutts for suppliers and materials, Mike Trevail for the distribution centre, vans and freight, and Gareth Pyne for store energy.

Strategy

Time horizons

Our short term runs to FY29, matching our three-year plan and viability period. The medium term, FY29 to FY36, matches a typical new store lease and our FY30 and FY32 targets. The long term, FY36 to 2050, covers our 2045 net zero target.

Risks and opportunities

We treat a climate-related risk or opportunity as material if it could change annual profit before tax by more than £1.5m, about 5% of FY26 adjusted profit before tax, in any of our scenarios. The six below meet that test. Our largest physical exposure is the summer: tents and camping equipment were about 19% of FY26 sales, and most of that sells between April and August.

Effect on strategy and financial planning

We check flood risk and summer heat before signing a lease for a new store, and in FY26 we chose a different unit in Okehampton because the first was at high flood risk. Repair, resale and lower-impact materials, which sit under our Kit that lasts priority (page 18), cut Scope 3 emissions and earn income that depends less on selling new products.

Our three-year plan includes an allowance for summer weather in camping categories, based on the last ten summers, and £7.5m of climate-related capital spending over FY27 to FY29, mainly on heat pumps, the last three electric vans and store energy controls. We considered climate when testing store assets for impairment, setting useful lives and providing for seasonal stock, and found no material effect on the FY26 financial statements (page 104).

Scenario analysis and resilience

We first ran climate scenario analysis in FY23 and updated it in FY26 with an external adviser. Our three scenarios, an orderly transition, a delayed transition and a hot house world, take carbon prices and other transition assumptions from the Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS), warming pathways from the IPCC and UK weather from the Met Office’s UKCP18 projections. None is a forecast. In the delayed transition, little new policy arrives until 2030, then sudden action squeezes consumer spending. Until about 2030 the physical climate is much the same in all three.

We applied each scenario to our three-year plan, holding the business at its FY26 size. Revenue effects come from a model linking weekly sales in each category to rainfall and temperature over the last ten years, converted to profit at contribution margin. Cost effects cover carbon prices passed on to us, flood damage, insurance, cooling and disruption at mills. All figures are before mitigation and price changes.

In the orderly transition the main effect is on costs, as carbon prices pass along the supply chain, and demand for repair, resale and lower-impact kit offsets much of it. Meeting our Scope 3 target would cut that FY40 cost effect by about a third. The delayed transition hits profit hardest, by £5m to £9m a year by FY40 (about 1% to 2% of FY26 revenue), because carbon costs arrive late and fast while consumers are under pressure. In the hot house world, disrupted summers and floods dominate, and demand for waterproofs and boots makes up part of the loss.

Resilience of our strategy

The board reviewed the analysis in September 2025 and concluded that our strategy and business model are resilient in all three scenarios over the short, medium and long term. The largest effects are small relative to the business and build up gradually, which gives us time to adapt our ranges, sourcing and stores. We have no borrowings, net cash of £36.4m and an undrawn £40m revolving credit facility, and our viability assessment tests two wet summers in a row (page 52).

The analysis does not capture tipping points or several extreme events in quick succession, and the link between weather and sales rests on the last ten years. We will refresh the scenarios at least every three years.

Risk management

Identifying and assessing climate risks

Climate risks go through the group’s standard risk process (page 46). The steering group also keeps a climate risk register, drawing on the scenario analysis, insurers’ flood maps, weather and sales data, and supplier reporting. Its annual workshop looks for new risks, and in October 2025 it added water stress at fabric mills and extended producer responsibility for textiles, both now emerging risks. We score each climate risk for impact and likelihood at each time horizon and carry the highest score into the group register, so the board can compare it directly with other risks.

Managing climate risks

Each climate risk has an owner on the Executive Committee, recorded controls and a target score. We reduce risks where we can, for example through the supplier programme or store flood plans, insure some and accept others within the board’s risk appetite. In FY26 internal audit, co-sourced with Linden Assurance, found the controls over our energy and carbon data adequately designed and made two recommendations, on evidence for refrigerant top-ups and on electricity data from landlords. We have completed both.

Integration with group risk management

Climate change is one of our ten principal risks, and its rating did not change this year (page 49). It also affects five others, including weather and seasonality, freight costs and currency, and the store estate. The Audit and Risk Committee, the board and the Sustainability Committee each review climate risk twice a year, the last in the most detail. Climate also feeds into our viability and going concern assessments.

Metrics and targets

We track the metrics below, grouped by the TCFD’s cross-industry categories. The full energy and emissions table and its methods are on page 38.

Targets

The Science Based Targets initiative validated our targets in 2024. Against FY22, we aim to cut Scope 1 and 2 emissions (market-based) by 90% by FY30 and Scope 3 emissions per £m of gross profit by 55% by FY32; by FY26 they were 54% and 23% lower. We also aim for net zero across our value chain by 2045. Supporting targets for renewable electricity, electric vans and lower-impact materials are on page 36. We use no carbon offsets towards any of them, and we expect to publish a transition plan for reaching net zero alongside our FY27 annual report.

Internal carbon price

Since FY25 every investment case above £250,000 has included the emissions it would add or avoid, valued at £85 per tCO2e, and the Executive Committee sees each case with and without that cost. It is a shadow price, so no money changes hands. We set it at the 2030 price in our orderly transition scenario, and the Sustainability Committee left it unchanged in FY26. This year it led us to fit heat pumps instead of new gas boilers at four refits where the costs were otherwise close, and to move one Swift tent range from air to sea freight. At £85 a tonne, our FY26 Scope 3 emissions would carry a notional cost of about £14m, around 7% of cost of sales.

Executive pay

Carbon reduction is one of four strategic measures in the annual bonus for the Chief Executive and Chief Financial Officer, alongside repairs, Club members and colleague engagement, and together they make up 40% of the bonus. The strategic part of the 2023 Long Term Incentive Plan award, 20% of the total, was measured on repairs and carbon and vested at 80% (page 74).

Disclosure index

Our sales move with the weather and with what households can afford, and most own-brand kit is made a long way from Dorset.

How the framework works

The board is responsible for risk management and internal control. It sets risk appetite, agrees the principal risks and reviews them in full twice a year, and in FY26 it carried out the assessment of principal and emerging risks that the UK Corporate Governance Code 2024 requires. The Audit and Risk Committee oversees the framework for the board (page 70), and the Sustainability Committee looks at climate risk in more detail.

Each quarter the Executive Risk Committee (the whole Executive Committee, chaired by our Chief Financial Officer, Anjali Mercer) reviews the group risk register and decides what goes to the board. Every principal risk has an owner on the Executive Committee, and the Group Risk Manager, who reports to Anjali, runs the process.

Store, distribution and head office teams own their risks and run the controls. Specialist teams, from health and safety to ethical trade, set policy and check that it is followed. Internal audit, co-sourced with Linden Assurance, gives independent assurance.

How we find and score risks

Each function updates its own risk register every quarter, and the most serious items roll up to the group register. The board and Executive Committee add risks that cut across functions or come from the strategy, many of them at the board’s strategy meeting each June.

Likelihood and impact each score from 1 to 5. We judge likelihood over the three-year viability period, from below a 10% chance (1) to above 80% (5), and impact mainly on adjusted profit before tax in a single year, from under £0.5m (1) to more than £10m (5). The net score, after the controls now in place, is the one we manage against: cyber security would score 5 by 5 with no controls and scores 3 by 5 today. Where a net score sits outside appetite, the owner agrees actions with the Executive Risk Committee, which follows them up until the score comes back in line.

The heat map shows the net scores of the ten principal risks at the date of this report.

Risk appetite

The board reviewed its appetite statements in September 2025 and added one for product safety and regulation, to match the new principal risk R10. Appetite is low where harm would be hard to undo, such as an injury or a data breach, and higher where measured risk is how we grow.

What changed this year

Product safety and regulation (R10) is now a principal risk in its own right; until this year it sat within sourcing. Three risks increased: freight costs and currency (R4) as the US dollar became more volatile, cyber security (R5) after serious attacks on other UK retailers in 2025, and technology change (R6) as the new merchandise planning system nears go-live. Colleague risk (R7) decreased, with store turnover down from 27% to 24%.

From FY27 the board must also declare whether our material controls were effective, under Provision 29 of the 2024 Code. The Audit and Risk Committee report on page 70 covers the 31 controls the board approved in December 2025 and how testing went.

The board confirmed these risks in April 2026. The links line on each card gives the strategic priorities the risk affects (1 Closer to the path, 2 Kit that lasts, 3 More people outside, 4 A simpler business; see page 18) and the board’s appetite for it. Net scores are on the heat map on page 46.

R1Weather and seasonalityNo change

The risk

A wet summer cuts camping sales and a mild winter cuts demand for waterproofs and boots, which can leave us clearing seasonal stock at lower margins.

How we manage it

Our range covers every season, so one weak category is often offset by another. We buy seasonal stock in stages and keep part of each budget back for repeat orders. Since March 2025 one stock pool has served stores and online, so stock can go where demand is.

What changed this year

A dry spring and warm June lifted camping, a wet August cut it, and a cold, wet autumn helped waterproofs and boots. January clearance was smaller than last year.

Strategy: 1, 3 · Appetite: moderate

R2Consumer spendingNo change

The risk

Higher living costs, taxes or unemployment could make households spend less on outdoor kit or put off buying tents and rucksacks. Shoppers who trade down or wait for promotions squeeze sales and gross margin.

How we manage it

Our own brands give good value at every price point. Club members, who account for 64% of sales, get members’ prices and free repairs on own-brand kit. We review trading weekly and can change marketing and buying quickly. Net cash of £36.4m and an undrawn £40m facility give us room to absorb a downturn.

What changed this year

Like-for-like sales grew 4.1%, slowing from 5.0% in the first half to 3.3% in the second. Customers watch prices but still pay for kit that lasts.

Strategy: 1, 3 · Appetite: moderate

R3Sourcing, supply chain and ethical tradeNo change

The risk

Most own-brand products are made overseas, and our top 30 suppliers account for 78% of own-brand cost. A factory failure or shipping disruption could leave us short of stock, and poor conditions at a supplier would break our standards and damage trust.

How we manage it

Every own-brand factory signs our supplier code and has an independent ethical audit before we place orders, then at least every two years. Our sourcing team visits the main factories yearly. Most core lines have a second source, and we keep buffer stock of best sellers at Huntworth.

What changed this year

We moved two Hale boot lines to a second factory, so no core boot now depends on one site. Product safety moved to R10.

Strategy: 2, 4 · Appetite: low

R4Freight costs and currencyIncreased

The risk

About 38% of our cost of goods is bought in US dollars, and container freight rates can rise quickly. If we cannot pass on or offset higher costs, gross margin falls.

How we manage it

We hedge with forward contracts: 75% to 90% of forecast dollar purchases for the next six months and a smaller share for months seven to 12, which gives us time to adjust prices each season. All imports now come through Huntworth, so containers travel fuller.

What changed this year

Lower freight rates helped gross margin. The dollar was more volatile and the pound weakened against it in the second half, and much of our FY27 cover was bought at less favourable rates.

Strategy: 4 · Appetite: low

R5Cyber security and customer dataIncreased

The risk

We hold personal data for 2.1 million Club members, and 36% of sales are online. A ransomware attack or data breach could stop online trading, tills or the distribution centre, bring fines and cost us members’ trust.

How we manage it

A specialist partner monitors our systems around the clock. All colleagues use multi-factor authentication, and external specialists test our defences twice a year. Backups are held offline, with restore tests every quarter. We never store full card numbers, and we hold cyber insurance.

What changed this year

Several UK retailers suffered serious attacks in 2025. The Executive Committee and the board rehearsed a ransomware attack in October 2025, and we extended multi-factor authentication to every store device.

Strategy: 3, 4 · Appetite: low

R6Technology changeIncreased

The risk

Our new merchandise planning system will decide what we buy and where stock goes. A late or faulty launch could leave stores and the website short of the right stock or holding too much of the wrong stock.

How we manage it

Sam Whitlock, our Chief Technology Officer, leads the programme with a steering group that includes the Chief Financial Officer and the Product and Sourcing Director. Each category will go live in turn and run alongside the old system for a full season, never between October and January. Linden Assurance reviews each stage gate.

What changed this year

Design and build finished on plan. The first category goes live in summer 2026, so the switch itself is now close.

Strategy: 4 · Appetite: moderate

R7Colleagues: pay, recruitment and retentionDecreased

The risk

Our stores need skilled boot fitters, repair technicians and leaders who know the local hills, often in small towns with few people looking for work. Pay costs keep rising: the National Living Wage went up 6.7% in April 2025, and employer National Insurance changes added about £2.3m.

How we manage it

We have paid every colleague at least the real Living Wage since April 2023, and the store base rate is £12.75. We train our own boot fitters (1,100 so far) and give each colleague two test days a year on the hill. The Colleague Voice forum, chaired by Ravi Dhanda, takes issues to the board.

What changed this year

Store turnover fell to 24% from 27%, and colleague engagement rose to 81%.

Strategy: 1, 3, 4 · Appetite: moderate

R8Climate changeNo change

The risk

Wetter summers and more frequent storms cut camping sales and footfall. Nine stores are at high flood risk, and the distribution centre at low risk. Carbon pricing on freight and materials could raise costs, and missing our science-based targets would damage trust.

How we manage it

We test our plans against three climate scenarios. Our ranges lean towards wet-weather kit, and repair and resale reduce our need for new materials. Each of the nine stores at risk of flooding has a flood plan, and the Sustainability Committee oversees our carbon targets.

What changed this year

Scope 1 and 2 market-based emissions fell to 1,120 tCO2e from 1,380, and 78% of our electricity was renewable. Climate disclosures are on page 40.

Strategy: 2, 3 · Appetite: moderate

R9Store estate and propertyNo change

The risk

Almost all of our 128 stores are leased, and 41 leases reach an expiry, break or rent review within two years. Higher rents could raise costs or cost us a good site, and a store in the wrong town brings losses and impairment.

How we manage it

The Executive Committee approves every opening and renewal against a payback target of under three years; recent openings have paid back in 2.6 years on average. We prefer leases of ten years or less with breaks, use an external property adviser and test stores for impairment each year.

What changed this year

We opened six stores and closed Swindon and Reading. Net store impairment was £1.5m.

Strategy: 1 · Appetite: high

R10Product safety and regulationNew

The risk

Stoves, gas canisters and child carriers must be safe, and the rules are changing. The EU is restricting PFAS chemicals, which affects Ireland, the UK is reforming product safety law, and both markets are moving towards producer responsibility for textiles. A failure could mean a recall or fines.

How we manage it

Our product technology team sets safety standards for own-brand lines, and accredited laboratories test them before launch and during production. Third-party brands must show they meet UK and EU law. Hale waterproofs have used a PFAS-free finish since Spring Summer 2025, and Swift follows from Spring Summer 2026.

What changed this year

We separated this risk from sourcing because the rules are changing faster than before.

Strategy: 2 · Appetite: low

Emerging risks

The Executive Risk Committee reviews emerging risks, and the board discusses them at its June strategy meeting. Customers are starting to ask AI assistants to recommend boots or tents, and search engines answer more questions on the results page, so fewer visits may reach our website; we are improving the product information we publish. Textile producer responsibility schemes would make retailers pay towards collecting and recycling clothing and footwear, so we have started recording the weight of textiles we sell. Water is becoming scarce where some mills dye and finish our fabrics, and we are mapping water risk at the mills our top 30 suppliers use.