14th Apr 2016 06:53
LONDON (Alliance News) - Poundland Group PLC Thursday said it expects to report full year underlying pretax profit broadly in line with current market expectations, as it saw sales up 18% in its recently ended financial year and continued to make progress with its conversion of 99p Stores.
Poundland gave current market expectations for underlying pretax profit, before trading losses from the acquired 99p Stores business, in the range of between GBP35.8 million and GBP41.5 million, with consensus of GBP38.7 million.
The company said its total sales, excluding Spain, in the year to March 27 increased 18% to GBP1.31 billion from GBP1.11 billion. On a like-for-like basis sales fell 3.9%, Poundland said, with a 4.9% fall seen in the second half.
Poundland said the fourth quarter has been tough for its core business, hit by difficult market conditions and disruption from the accelerated pace of its programme to convert 99p Stores. It completed 190 store conversions by the end of the fourth quarter, Poundland said, and this conversion programme will finish at the end of April, "well ahead of plan."
Over the year Poundland added 331 stores to its Poundland estate in the UK and Ireland, and said that, "given the opportunities that this greater scale presents, it is appropriate in the current financial year to concentrate upon extracting value from a significantly enlarged store portfolio". As such it will open fewer stores in the financial year ahead.
"Against a tough retail background, this has been a transformative year for Poundland, strengthening further our position as Europe's biggest single-price discounter. We have added over 300 shops to our portfolio in the UK & Ireland, in particular in the South of England, substantially increasing our geographical reach and scale," said Chief Executive Jim McCarthy in a statement.
Poundland will report its full year results, along with a first quarter trading statement, June 16.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; [email protected]; @HanaSSAllNews
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