Franchise Brands Regulatory News (FRAN)

5 July 2021

FRANCHISE BRANDS PLC

("Franchise Brands", "the Group" or "the Company")

Trading Update and Notice of Interim Results

Record-breaking system sales at Metro Rod

Franchise Brands plc (AIM: FRAN), a multi-brand franchise business, provides the following trading update for the six-month period ended 30 June 2021.

The Board is pleased with the progress the Group has made over the past six months. As the country has thankfully progressed out of lockdown with the successful vaccination programme, our franchisees have continued to serve our underlying customers.

System sales at Metro Rod have returned to their strong pre-COVID growth levels, increasing by 21% compared to H1 2020 and 17% compared to H1 2019. This represents record system sales of £23.8m for the six-month period (H1 2020: £19.7m; H1 2019: £20.2m). The growth accelerated during the period as restrictions have been eased resulting in record system sales in June of £4.3m, an increase of 41% compared to H1 2020 and 26% compared to H1 2019.

Willow Pumps, which was acquired in October 2019, has a greater exposure to hospitality and was more impacted by lockdown. However, invoiced sales increased by around 9% compared to H1 2020. In addition, Willow Pumps continues to facilitate the growth of pump-related work within Metro Rod, where pumps system sales by our franchisees have increased 159% to £0.7m (H1 2020: £0.3m).

The B2C division has also performed strongly, and 40 new franchisees have been recruited (H1 2020: 27; H1 2019: 34) taking the number of B2C franchisees to 393 (H1 2020: 389; H1 2019: 394).

Overall, the Group's trading in the first half gives the Board strong confidence in delivering a full year performance at least in line with market expectations and it will provide a further update on current trading and outlook at the time of the half year results.

Notice of results

The interim results for the six-month period ended 30 June 2021 are expected to be announced on 22 July 2021 and the Board looks forward to updating shareholders with further details at that time.

 Stephen Hemsley, Executive Chairman of Franchise Brands, commented: 

"I have been pleased by the speed at which the demand for our services has grown as the lockdown restrictions have been lifted. Throughout the pandemic I have been particularly encouraged by the resilience of our franchisees. Their entrepreneurial spirit and continued commitment to serve our customers gives me huge confidence in the future of Franchise Brands."

Enquiries:

About Franchise Brands plc

Franchise Brands is focused on building market-leading businesses in selected customer segments using primarily a franchise model. The Group currently has a combined network of over 425 franchisees across five principal franchise brands. Our focus is on established brands which can benefit from our shared support services, specialist sector expertise, management experience and group resources.

The Group is organised into a B2B division comprised of Metro Rod, Metro Plumb, and Willow Pumps, and a B2C division that incorporates ChipsAway, Ovenclean and Barking Mad. This divisional organisation of our brands is designed to provide a greater focus and structure to support the strategic development of our B2B and B2C brands.

Each of our brands are leaders in their respective markets and each brand has a long trading history. The combined trading history of all the Group's brands is over 135 years.

Franchise Brands plc employs some 280 people across three principal locations in Macclesfield, Kidderminster and Aylesford.

For further information, visit www.franchisebrands.co.uk.