30th Sep 2014 11:00
LONDON (Alliance News) - Meat retailer Crawshaw Group PLC Tuesday said it more than doubled its pretax profit in the first half of last year, as strong revenue growth was boosted by new store openings and the recent acquisition of high-end butchers shop East Yorkshire Beef.
The company reported a pretax profit of GBP673,657 for the six months to June 30, up from GBP299,271 in the first half of last year, as revenue rose to GBP11.8 million from GBP9.8 million a year earlier. Like-for-like sales grew strongly, up 12%.
"Looking towards the second half of the year, our core business is performing in line with expectations with like for like sales for the first eight weeks of the second half up 5% and gross margin higher than our first half performance," said Chairman Richard Rose in a statement.
Signalling its confident outlook, the company increased its interim dividend to 0.10 pence per share, up from last year's 0.09 pence.
"The board believes the strength of performance of the core business, in isolation, warrants an increase in the dividend without utilising the monies raised for expansion," said Rose.
Crawshaw said it closed its smaller market site in Sheffield in July, now that its high-street store nearby is trading well, and said its expects to open its new factory shop in Hellaby at the beginning of November, albeit slightly behind schedule.
"The board are very excited about our accelerated store opening programme, and we are starting to build our resource and capability so that we are in a position to deliver opportunities through 2015," said Rose.
Crawshaw shares were trading 2.2% lower before midday Tuesday at 56.00 pence.
By Rowena Harris-Doughty; [email protected]; @rharrisdoughty
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