LONDON (Alliance News) - Moss Bros Group PLC on Wednesday reported growth in profit and like-for-like sales in its recent financial year, citing brand development, cost control and strong online sales.
The retailer said pretax profit for the year ended January 31 grew 9% to GBP4.8 million from GBP4.4 million the year before. Like-for-like sales were up 5.5%, compared with 4.2% growth in the year before, while adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation increased 5.4% to GBP9.7 million from GBP9.2 million.
The company said it refitted 14 stores as part of its ongoing refit plan and plans to refit a further 27 stores this year. It also re-launched its supporting sub-brands as Moss London, Moss 1851, Moss Esq. in the autumn.
Moss Bros reported online sales growth of 59% and said online sales now make up 7.8% of group revenue.
However, gross margin fell by 70 basis points to 58.3% for the year due to a small proportion of its higher-margin hire business in overall sales.
Like-for-like sales for the first seven weeks of its current financial year are up 7.5%, Moss Bros said, and hire has seen an upturn in bookings for the 2015 wedding season.
"The early response to the 2015 Spring/Summer retail range is positive, and retail like-for-like sales are continuing to improve year-on-year. Hire is showing signs of recovery and we are well placed to maximise revenues in 2015 following a difficult two years for wedding related hire," Chief Executive Brian Brick said in a statement.
"The business is on track to achieve market expectations in 2015/16," he added.
The company will pay a total dividend for the year of 5.25 pence, compared with 5.00p the year before.
Moss Bros shares were up 2.1% in early trade Wednesday at 107.68p.
By Karolina Kaminska; karolinakaminska@alliancenews.com @KarolinaAllNews
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