(Alliance News) - Applegreen PLC on Tuesday said it expects the Covid-19 outbreak to hurt profit in its financial year to the end of June as it announced a range of cost-cutting measures.
The roadside service station owner said that although trading was in line with expectations in the first ten weeks of 2020, footfall and volumes in the last two weeks have been hurt due to containment measures taken by customers and imposed by the government.
Applegreen said that in order to conserve cash, it will defer development capital expenditure, implement a freeze on recruitment, defer executive director bonuses and defer proposing a final dividend for 2019. Additionally, it will take advantage of government relief measures and begin negotiations with landlords on rental holidays.
Separately, the roadside retailer said profitability for financial 2019 was in line with consensus, driven by "solid" like-for-like growth across the business, particularly in non-fuel. Full unaudited results for the year to June 30, 2019 will be published on Friday.
The stock was trading 11% lower at 201.00 pence each on Tuesday afternoon in London.
By Ife Taiwo; ifetaiwo@alliancenews.com
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