Crawshaw Group Regulatory News (CRAW)

29 June 2016

Crawshaw Group Plc

("Crawshaw" or "the Group")

Appointment of Non-Executive Director and

AGM Trading & Strategic Update

Appointment of Non-Executive Director:

Crawshaw is delighted to announce the appointment of Ken McMeikan as a Non-Executive Director with effect from 8 July 2016.

Ken is currently Group CEO of the Brakes Group, a leading pan-European foodservice company, a position he has held since 2013. Prior to this, Ken was Group CEO of Greggs Plc, the UK's leading bakery food-on-the-go retailer, a position he held from 2008-2013. Additionally, Ken has a combined 18 years of senior retail experience with both Tesco and Sainsbury's. 

Chairman, Richard Rose, comments:

"We are delighted to announce today the appointment of Ken McMeikan as a Non-Executive Director of Crawshaw. Ken brings a wealth of foodservice, food retailing and high street experience along with expertise in business strategy development during periods of accelerated high street expansion and sales growth. We are excited by Ken's appointment and look forward to him further strengthening our senior management team during our growth phase".

Trading and Strategic Update:

At this afternoon's AGM of Crawshaw Group Plc, the fresh meat and food-to-go retailer, the Chief Executive Officer, Noel Collett, will give the following trading and strategic update for the 20 weeks trading to 19 June 2016 in the current financial year:

Group sales were up 37% for the first 20 weeks of the financial year with like-for-like sales down 1.9% for the same period. As has been widely reported, footfall conditions on the high street and in shopping centres were softer in March, impacted predominantly by the structural timing of Easter, soft again in June due to the impact of the start of the international football championships, the adverse persistent weather and the build up to the EU Referendum; these conditions were reflected in our own performance. However, cash margin generated in our like-for-like trading stores continued to perform strongly and increased by 1% for the same period as we continue to manage the balance of sales and margin in our like-for-like estate to optimise sustainable profitability whilst carefully managing our growth plan.

Our new store rollout plan continues with an additional 8 trading stores already opened in the financial year to date, taking our portfolio to 47 stores. In June we opened our first standalone fresh meat factory shop in West Bromwich. The shop is trading well and we expect the second standalone fresh meat factory shop to open in the summer. During the same period, we have also planned to open our first fresh-meat-only store on the high street, which unlocks further opportunities to expand into smaller footprint retail space. We have a strong pipeline of stores at various stages and are therefore confident of meeting our target of 15 new stores for the year. In parallel, we continue to develop our food-to-go proposition to further showcase the quality of our fresh meat offer.

Chief Executive Officer, Noel Collett, comments:

"We have made a good start to the year. Our trading performance has been in line with expectations as we effectively manage the balance of sales and margin in our like-for-like estate, and our growth strategy continues to progress well.

In the last couple of weeks, we have seen some distorted and suppressed footfall patterns created through the combined impacts of the start of the international football championships, the adverse persistent weather and the build up to the EU Referendum. It is too early to judge if the vote to leave the EU impacts consumer confidence in the medium term, but clearly our retail format of quality fresh meat at value prices means we are well placed to delight new and existing customers with our offer should disposable income become stretched".

The Group interim results for the six months ended 31 July 2016 will be announced on 29 September 2016 when we will update the market on current trading.

Enquiries:

Crawshaw Group plc

Noel Collett, Alan Richardson 01709 369 600

Peel Hunt LLP

Dan Webster, Adrian Trimmings, George Sellar 020 7418 8900

Disclosure under AIM rule 17, Schedule Two (g), Kennedy McMeikan (Ken), aged 51, has held the following positions:

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