26th Sep 2013 08:18
LONDON (Alliance News) - Moss Bros Group PLC, the men's formal-wear retailer, Thursday reported broadly flat profits, and a slight increase in revenues in the first half of the year, as an increase in its retail gross profits, and a 164% increase in e-commerce sales, helped offset a fall in suit hires.
Despite reporting only a slight increase in first half profits and revenues, Moss Bros increased its interim dividend by 50% to 0.3 pence per share.
Moss Bros said that trading so far in the second half of the year has been encouraging. Like-for-like sales in the eight weeks to September 21 are up 4.9%, the company said, as UK weather has returned to seasonal norms, and the company moved out of its summer clearance activity period.
Moss Bros said that total sales from its continuing business were up 1.2% on last year in the 26 week period to July 27, while on a like-for-like basis, retail sales were up 1.7%, and hire sales dropped 7.2%.
It said that its e-commerce sales accelerated sharply in the first half, up 164% on the previous year, benefiting from the launch of a new retail website at the beginning of its financial year, which boosted customer traffic flow and conversion rates. It also said that it plans to go live in November with a transactional hire website, which it hopes will improve hire sales.
"Hire, as anticipated, had a difficult first half but we expect an improvement in the second half of the year as we move out of the wedding season into eveningwear, where we are already seeing good growth on the previous year, " said Chief Executive Officer Brian Brick in a statement.
The group reported total revenues of GBP53.3 million in the 26 weeks to July 27, compared to GBP52.7 million a year earlier. Half-year pretax profit was GBP2.23 million, compared with GBP2.21 million a year earlier.
Moss Bros said that it opened one new store in the first half of the year, and closed two loss-making stores. It also said it refitted a further four stores during the period, and expects to refit a further ten stores in the second half of the year.
The company shares were 2.3% lower Thursday morning, trading at 70.62 pence per share.
By Rowena Harris-Doughty; [email protected]; @rharrisdoughty
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