LONDON (Alliance News) - Crawshaw Group PLC Thursday reported growth in profit in its recently completed financial year, as sales were boosted and the company seeks to extend its footprint across the UK.
However, the company said like-for-like sales were down slightly so far in the new year against a strong comparative.
The fresh meat and food-to-go retailer reported pretax profit for the year ended January 31 of GBP1.2 million, up from GBP1.0 million the year before, as sales grew 17% to GBP24.6 million from GBP21.0 million.
It said additional sales were generated by the opening of its new factory shop in Rotherham in November which is performing "well above expectations", while a new shop was opened in Sheffield in March.
Former Lidl Executive Noel Collett joined Crawshaw as chief executive in March.
Crawshaw will pay a final dividend of 0.47 pence, taking the total dividend for the year to 0.57 pence, up 10% from last year's 0.52p.
Crawshaw said like-for-like sales are down 4% in the first 10 weeks of the current year, following "exceptional growth" from the comparable period last year. However, the company said it still has a good outlook for the year ahead.
"I am very pleased with the progress made to date on our plans to open 200 shops. The post year end acquisition of Gabbotts Farm has provided 11 additional profitable shops and a distribution centre in the North West of England. We have also recently signed leases on new shops in Leeds and Bolton which are currently being fitted out. In addition there are a number of other locations in the process of being signed up," Chairman Richard Rose said in a statement.
Shares in Crawshaw were down 11% at 48.30 pence Thursday morning.
By Karolina Kaminska; karolinakaminska@alliancenews.com @KarolinaAllNews
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