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Angling Direct, the UK’s largest fishing tackle retailer, has delivered another strong performance in the first half of its 2026 financial year, posting a 17% increase in total revenue to £53.6m compared to £45.8m in the previous year.
The east of England-based business, which has 55 stores across the UK, reported in-store and online sales of £51.1m (£43.5m), up 17.7%. Total like-for-like revenue grew 14.2%, reflecting the strength of its omni-channel proposition and increasing customer reach, says Angling Direct, pointing to the continued growth of the MyAD customer loyalty club to over 496K subscribers on July 31st and breaking the 500k barrier earlier this month.
Outside the UK, the group’s first European store in Utrecht celebrated its first anniversary in May and FY 26 will mark its first full year of trading through the peak summer period. Angling Direct reported that customer visits in the comparable two months – May and June – almost trebled as the Netherlands business further established its presence in the region.
The group said: “The digital European market remains challenging and the business continued its focus on the key markets of Germany and the Netherlands, with sales increasing in those territories. The company will maintain its primary digital focus on those countries to build a sustainable and efficient European business.”
Steve Crowe, CEO of Angling Direct, told investors: “I am pleased to report that we have delivered another period of sustained progress against our medium-term objectives. Our increasing customer appeal, underpinned by MyAD and the asssociated growth of revenues in our existing UK stores and digital platforms, provides us with further confidence of achieving our medium-term UK revenue target of £100m.
“In the UK, we have continued to build on the strong momentum delivered in FY 25 by leveraging both our digital and physical footprint to increasingly join up our omni-channel offer. We have made pleasing progress on gross margin development against the inflationary cost case backdrop. Our focus remains on delivering best value, flexibility and service for our customers and we are pleased to have opened two new stores to date, and the new openings pipeline remains strong.”
Angling Direct expects revenues for the year ending January 31st to be £97.7m.
