Patisserie Holdings Plc Regulatory News (CAKE)

Patisserie Holdings PLC ('the Group')

Preliminary results for the 12 months ended 30 September 2016

A Year of Outstanding Financial and Operational Performance

Patisserie Holdings PLC, the leading UK branded café and casual dining group, today reports its preliminary results for the 12 months ended 30 September 2016

Financial summary

Financial highlights

· Tenth consecutive year of revenue and profit growth with revenue up 13.3% to £104.1m (2015: £91.9m)

o Online sales up 23% to £3.8m (2015: £3.1m)

· Gross profit of £81.3m up by 14.5% (2015: £71.0m)

o Gross margin of 78.1% (2015: 77.3%)

· EBITDA of £22.2m up 18.1% (2015: £18.8m)

· Excellent growth in pre-tax profit to £17.2m up 18.2% (2015: £14.6m)

· Diluted earnings per share of 13.60 pence up 20.1% (2015: 11.32 pence per share)

· Net cash at year end of £13.3m (2015: £6.1m) with operating cash inflows of £22.0m (2015: £18.3m)

· Average store payback period of 23 months

· Final dividend of 2.00 pence per share proposed up 20.0% (2015: 1.67 pence per share)

Operational highlights

· 21 new stores opened in the year all funded from operating cash flows including flagship stores in Belfast, Birmingham Resorts World and Oxford Street in London

o First store opened in Northern Ireland which has an attached bakery with capacity to support a further 10 stores

o New standalone bakery opened in Edinburgh which will facilitate future expansion in Scotland

o A number of new stores opened in towns and cities which are generally trading ahead of management's expectations, demonstrating the breadth of appeal of our brands and products

· 184 stores at end of year (2015:166)

· Six new stores opened since the year end with a well developed pipeline for 2017. The Group continues to target 20 new store openings per annum.

· Significant investment in people with a number of senior positions recruited in the year

· Wage and ingredient cost pressures mitigated in the year and the Group remains vigilant about future increases

Luke Johnson, Executive Chairman, said

"The excellent results for the year show the continuing appeal of our brands, the financial strength of the group and the strong cash generative nature of our business model. We have achieved growth in revenues and profits despite uncertain economic conditions and for the first time we have exceeded revenues of £100m: a significant achievement. Our roll-out programme continues to deliver successful store openings and I am particularly pleased with the performance of our first store in Northern Ireland. Our strategy remains that of organic growth; however we are well positioned to make acquisitions should any suitable opportunities arise. Performance for the first eight weeks of the year has been encouraging and we have already opened six new stores. We have a strong pipeline for the year ahead with a number of promising locations already secured. We will continue to control costs and manage our supply chain in this period of macro-economic uncertainty, thus I am confident of another successful year of growth

Enquiries

Chief Executive's Review

Overview

Our business continues to grow and perform extremely well, driven principally by the strong appeal of our Patisserie Valerie brand. Despite uncertain market conditions the Group has delivered excellent results for the year ended 30 September 2016. Annual revenues exceeded £100m for the first time at £104.1m, an increase of £12.2m or 13.3% (2015: £91.9m). EBITDA is £22.2m, an increase of £3.4m or 18.1% (2015: £18.8m) and profit before tax is £17.2m, an increase of £2.6m or 18.2% (2015: £14.6m).

Basic earnings per share is 13.74 pence per share (2015: 11.41 pence per share) and diluted earnings per share is 13.60 pence per share (2015: 11.32 pence per share), an increase of 20.4% and 20.1% respectively.

Revenues from our largest brand, Patisserie Valerie, which trades from 135 stores, are £73.9m, up £11.0m or 17.6% (2015: £62.9m from 116 stores) and revenues from our other brands are £30.2m, up £1.1m or 4.1% (2015 £29.1m).

Review

General market conditions remain competitive and in 2016 we experienced a number of macro events which may have had an impact to our trading; however the performance of our new and existing estate was resilient, which gives us great confidence as to the economic resilience of our business. Our products are seen as affordable treats in times of uncertainty, and as a luxurious indulgence when celebrating. We saw little or no effect on sales from Brexit and experienced no impact on our workforce.

The cost base has remained relatively stable in the year with a gross profit margin at 78.1% (2015: 77.3%). Our margin has benefitted from food deflation over the last few years and we are now beginning to see ingredient prices harden. We are confident that we will be able to offset price increases by re-negotiating key contracts, by making savings in non-direct spends and through further efficiencies in our production process so that our overall margin remains neutral going forward.

As anticipated, the largest cost pressure this year has been National Living Wage (NLW) which had a full year impact of £0.5m. However we introduced a more efficient labour rostering method in the year which has almost offset this increase. The increase to minimum wage from 1 October 2016 will be £0.1m and we will continue to monitor and react appropriately to future increases in the NLW.

Helpfully, given our strategy of growth outside of London, we anticipate that cost increases from the changes to Business Rates from April 2017 will be marginal.

In the prior year we launched Afternoon Tea which is becoming one of our most successful offerings. We sold 133,000 afternoon teas in the year, generating sales of £2.3m compared to £1.2m in 2015. Afternoon Tea appeals to our customers as it allows diners to try a selection of our cakes as well as being a great British experience. We have developed a number of variants and will be launching a Festive Afternoon Tea for the Christmas period.

Our online channel continues to grow with digital sales of £3.8m up by 23% (2015 £3.1m). Cake Club membership has grown to 361,000 members an increase of 18% (2015 306,000 members) and we have also developed a growing social media following. We recognise the importance of customer loyalty and during the year commenced development of a rewards scheme which will be piloted in the first half of 2017.

People

As the Group continues to grow, our business processes have become ever more complex, not only operationally, but also in line with the compliance demands of being a publicly quoted entity. In the year we have recruited a number of senior people into the business to help support the ambitions of the Board.

Key new positions that we have created and recruited this year include:

- Head of Production to implement our production strategy;

- Group Marketing Manager to drive our store marketing programme;

- Head of Group Brand Loyalty to introduce a loyalty scheme;

- Group Health, Safety and Environment Manager to reduce business risk; and

- Head of Procurement to manage our supply chain.

All of these positions are newly created posts and these senior people are bringing a wealth of experience with them to help drive both operational and brand growth going forwards.

The most significant single appointment this year has been of that of Adrian Johnson who joined the business in September 2016 in the capacity of Managing Director of the Patisserie Valerie brand. Adrian has significant experience in our sector and has previously been the Managing Director of Costa where he grew the business from 300 UK stores to over 1,250 stores. Adrian has spent the last three years as the Chief Executive Officer of Eat and has also had senior roles at TGI Fridays and Brewers Fayre.

Estate Development

Our rollout strategy targets 20 new store openings per annum. In the year we successfully opened 21 new stores all funded from operating cash flows. The mix of new store locations includes five highstreets, five shopping centres, three retail parks, two motorway service stations and six Debenhams concession stores.

Highlights from this year's programme are as follows:

- We opened a full brasserie store in Resorts World Birmingham which is located close to the NEC.

- Two stores were opened in designer shopping outlets in Cheshire Oaks and York McArthur Glenn.

- We opened our 10th store in Scotland in the Glasgow Fort shopping centre. Given our growing presence in Scotland, in the year we invested in a standalone bakery in Edinburgh which now supports all of our Scotland stores and has capacity for a further 10 stores.

- Two additional motorway service stations were opened in Cambridge and Peterborough to add to the Beaconsfield and Baldock stores which we opened in previous years.

- We strategically opened a number of stores in new regions, such as Preston, Bradford, Durham, Chippenham, Bury, Doncaster and Camberley. These locations have lower rentals than traditional larger city locations and with good sales these stores are exceeding management's expectations. The pleasing performance provides a good indicator of the demand for the growing Patisserie Valerie brand.

- In 2015 we entered into a partnership agreement with Debenhams. We opened six new Debenhams stores this year, taking our total to nine Debenhams concession stores. These stores are typically smaller units than our own stores, however we benefit from increased footfall and combined with favourable rents (compared to high-street units) and these stores are generating a comparable return on investment. Two of these stores have been particularly successful; London Oxford Street, which is a flagship brasserie offering, and Chelmsford which has an entrance directly onto the high-street.

- Our first store in Northern Ireland was opened in Belfast in May which is a full brasserie offering. The brand has been well received and trading to date has been excellent. The store is fitted with a bakery in the basement which can support further expansion in Northern Ireland.

The Group closed three stores during the period, due to leases expiring, taking our total number of trading stores to 184. One of the closures was due to a redevelopment at St Pancras train station in London and the unit re-opened early in November 2016.

The payback on our stores continues to be less than 24 months and all of our new openings have been profitable from the first week of trading. The pipeline for 2017 remains strong and since the year end we have already opened six stores, exchanged contracts on two sites and are in advanced negotiations on nine sites. We have some excellent new locations planned for 2017.

Cash flow and financing

The group generated operating cash flows of £22.0m, up £3.7m or 20.2% (2015: £18.3m), £3.4m was used to make income tax payments and £8.7m was invested in capital expenditure leaving free cash flows of £9.9m (2015: £7.5m).

We invested £5.6m in new stores and £1.3m of capex on refreshing existing estate. The return on investment from our stores remains strong with the majority of stores having a payback period of less than 24 months.

In the year we also started a plan of enhancing our production facilities and invested a further £1.8m on infrastructure; this included £0.4m at a bakery in Leith, £0.4m at our main bakery in Birmingham, £0.4m at our bakery in Northern Ireland and £0.6m upgrading central infrastructure.

Net cash at the end of the year is £13.3m (2015: £6.1m) and the group remains solely funded from operating cash flows.

Dividends

In the year, we paid £1.67m in relation to the final dividend for FY2015 of 1.67 pence per share and an interim dividend of £1.0m for FY2016 of 1.00 pence per share. The group is cash generative and the Board is committed to a progressive dividend policy for its shareholders. The Board is recommending a final dividend for FY2016 of 2.00 pence per share which represents a 20% increase over the final dividend paid in relation FY2015. Subject to shareholder approval at the Annual General Meeting, to be held on 25th January 2017, the final dividend will be paid on 10th February 2017 to the shareholders on the register at 13th January 2017.

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF COMPREHENSIVE INCOME

FOR THE 12 MONTHS ENDED 30 SEPTEMBER 2016

CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEET

AT 30 SEPTEMBER 2016

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF CHANGES IN EQUITY

FOR THE 12 MONTHS ENDED 30 SEPTEMBER 2016

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF CASH FLOWS

FOR THE 12 MONTHS ENDED 30 SEPTEMBER 2016

NOTES TO THE PRELIMINARY RESULTS

1. This preliminary results announcement was approved by the Board of Directors on 28th November 2016. 

1.1. The financial information set out above does not constitute the Group's statutory financial statements for the years ended 30 September 2016 or 2015, but is derived from those accounts. Statutory financial statements for 2015 have been delivered to the Registrar of Companies and those for 2016 will be delivered in due course. The Independent Auditors' Report on the Annual Report and Financial Statements for both periods was unqualified, did not draw attention to any matters by way of emphasis, and did not contain a statement under s498(2) or s498(3) of the Companies Act 2006.

1.2. For the year ended 30 September 2016 the consolidated financial statements of the Group have been prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards as adopted by the European Union (IFRSs as adopted by the EU), and the Companies Act 2006 applicable to companies reporting under IFRS.

1.3. This financial information has been prepared in accordance with the accounting policies stated in the Group's financial statements for the year ended 30 September 2016. The financial statements have been prepared on the historical cost basis. There are a number of new accounting standards, amendments to existing standards and interpretations which are mandatory for the year ended 30 September 2016. No changes arising from new or revised accounting standards have had a material impact on the consolidated financial statements of the Group.

2. Earnings per Share

3. Segmental Analysis

Management has determined the operating segments based on the reports reviewed by the Chief Operating Decision Maker ("CODM") comprising the Board of Directors. The segmental information is split on the basis of those same profit centres, however, management report only the contents of the income statement and therefore no balance sheet information is provide on a segmental basis in the following tables:

*The reconciling items relate to year-end consolidation adjustments and reclassification for statutory reporting purposes.

Revenue within each trading segment is derived from income from restaurant, takeaway, online and wholesale sales and revenue within overheads relates to income received centrally which is not allocated to individual operating segments.

Segmental revenues are reported gross of sales to other reportable segments. Flour Power revenues include £1.7m (2015: £1.1m) made to other operating segments. Other operating segments report sales to external customers only.

Segmental operating profit excludes costs relating to central services provided by our Operations, IT, Marketing, HR and Finance Teams and our Board of Directors

All of the Group's revenue from continuing operations has been generated from UK operations, and all non-current assets are held in the UK.

The Group does not have any customers whom account for more than 10% of external revenue.

4. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA)

5. Taxation

Factors affecting current tax charge:

The tax assessed on the profit for the period is different to the standard rate of corporation tax in the UK. The differences are explained below:

6. Property, Plant and Equipment

The Financial Statements for the 12 months ended 30 September 2016 will be posted to shareholders and laid before the Company at the Annual General Meeting; this will be held on 25th January 2017 at 9.00 a.m. at Patisserie Valerie Spitalfields, 37 Brushfield Street London E1 6AA.

Copies of The Financial Statements will be available from the Company Secretary at Patisserie Holdings PLC, 146-156 Sarehole Road, Birmingham, B28 8DT or from the Company's website https://www.patisserie-valerie.co.uk.