Angling Direct – aiming to Build Europe's largest fishing club – group is gaining traction, shares up 14% in one day at 57p, after a 20% plus this morning since weekend feature

Mark Watson-Mitchell – 07.10.2025

Last weekend, I stated that this morning’s results should be good enough to see the recent strength in the fishing tackle group’s share price being continued.

I noted that:

“Its shares, which are not cheap, have moved up 40% since the August Trading Update, are now 50p.

If they fall back on any profit-taking, then perhaps risk-tolerant investors should take advantage of any price-easing.

They were up to 55p last Wednesday, so a good positive statement could help to push them back up there again, and then even higher.”

This Morning’s Results

Angling Direct (LON:ANG) reported strong half-year results with sustained strategic progress.

The group’s revenue increased by 17% to £53.6m, with UK sales growing 17.7% to £51.1m, driven by a 15.4% rise in retail store sales and a 21.2% increase in online sales.

European sales saw a modest increase of 5.1% to £2.5m.

Gross profit increased by 21.3% to £20.4m, with gross margin improving by 130 bps to 38.0%.

Adjusted EBITDA grew by 39.4% to £3.9m, while adjusted profit before tax increased by 34.7% to £3.0m, and the basic EPS increased to 2.91p.

Net cash decreased to £12.5m.

The company expects FY26 revenues to be no less than £102.0m and Adjusted EBITDA to be no less than £4.3m.

The Business

Angling Direct's purpose is to inspire everyone to get out and enjoy an exceptional fishing experience, regardless of background or ability, in the great outdoors.

The Norfolk-based group is the leading omni-channel specialist fishing tackle retailer in the UK, with an established and growing presence in Europe.

It sells fishing tackle products and related equipment through its network of 57 UK retail stores, as well as through its leading digital platform (www.anglingdirect.co.uk) and the MyAD Fishing Club app.

The company has three further native language websites in its key European territories (www.anglingdirect.de, .fr, .nl), with orders fulfilled by its international distribution centre in The Netherlands.

Angling Direct currently sells over 25,000 fishing tackle products from industry-leading brands alongside its own brands 'Advanta', and entry-level offering 'Discover'.

Management Comment

CEO Steve Crowe stated that:

"We are pleased to report that the momentum generated in FY25 has continued into the first half, with strong in-store and online sales providing confidence that the Group will deliver a FY26 trading performance ahead of market expectations.

During the period, we made continued progress against our strategic objectives, with Group revenue increasing 17% to £53.6m and adjusted EBITDA increasing 39.4% to £3.9m.

This performance has been underpinned by the success of our loyalty and repeat purchase membership club, MyAD, which increased 21% to over 496k subscribers, driving engagement with existing and new customers across our stores and online platforms.

Despite the challenging consumer backdrop, our ongoing investment in technology and the leveraging of unique customer insights has allowed us to attract new customers, complementing our ongoing UK store roll out programme, which saw Angling Direct open a new catchment in Chester during the period, alongside locations in Bradford, Stourport, Burnley post period-end, bringing our UK store footprint to 57.

Looking ahead, our performance to date has served to vindicate our strategy and we remain focused on executing against our strategic objectives.

Our continued UK store roll out strategy alongside the development of the UK digital business further extends our competitive moat.

This provides the Board with confidence that the solid foundations that we have established will continue to position us well to take advantage of the growth opportunities available in the UK, at the same time enabling us to retain optionality over a presence in Europe which will significantly grow our addressable market and support our longer term growth ambitions.”

My View

This group has very set ambitions – to build Europe’s largest fishing club – it is totally on track to do so.

Its shares touched 60p this morning on the back of the results and statement, before easing back to 54p, and then moving ahead again – to 57p as I write.

That shows a very healthy 14% one-day gain after my weekend feature on the group.

I repeat that if they fall back on any profit-taking, then perhaps risk-tolerant investors should take advantage of any price-easing.