Online furniture and homewares retailer Temple & Webster has unveiled an 84 per cent improvement in its net-losses year-on-year (YoY) for the first-half of fiscal 18, re-affirming its FY19 maiden profit timeline.

The pureplay retailer booked a $0.89 million statutory net loss for the six months to 31 December, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) losses fell by 2.3 per cent to $0.8 million, much less severe than the 14.4 per cent earnings decline in the prior corresponding period (PCP).

Revenue was $34.4 million, relatively unchanged on the PCP, which management said was “masked” by the consolidation of Milan Direct.

YoY revenue growth in the first six weeks of calendar 18 has been stronger, up 21 per cent after a “strong” Christmas period.

TPW ended the first-half with $8.8 million in cash and no debt.

“Phase 1 of our turnaround journey is complete. All acquisitions have been successfully integrated and we have improved the economics of the business across the board while retaining our revenue base and online market leadership,” CEO Mark Coulter said.

“[Our] customer focus can be seen in our current active customer and revenue growth, which will allow us to achieve our stated goal of FY19 being our maiden profitable year.

“We will also continue to invest in new growth opportunities such as showrooms, click and collect locations, our trade and commercial division and building out adjacent categories, which is setting the business up for healthy growth for years to come,” he continued.

TPW achieved a 17 per cent reduction in its operating costs YoY during the half, while gross margin after distribution costs increased by 4.6 per cent to 30.8 per cent.

Gross margin increased by 2.1 per cent on the PCP to 44.2 per cent for the first-half, while delivered margin (which includes distribution costs) increased by 4.6 per cent YoY.