21st Jan 2015 07:54
LONDON (Alliance News) - Discount retail chain Poundland Group PLC Wednesday said sales rose around 10% in the third quarter of its financial year, driven by both existing stores and new store openings, while it also said it saw a "record" Christmas trading period.
The discount retailer, which sells everything for GBP1 in its Poundland stores and the equivalent from its Dealz stores in Ireland, said total revenue, excluding its trial stores in Spain, increased by 9.8% to GBP328.4 million in the 13 weeks to December 28. If exchange rates had stayed the same, it said sales in the period would have been up marginally more, at 10.2%.
"There was a good contribution to growth from both like-for-like store sales and continuing good performance from new stores during the third quarter. As expected though, due to the timing of our openings, the contribution from new store trading weeks was lower than the corresponding period last year, a continuation of the trend seen in the first half," the company said in a statement.
Poundland said it opened a net 17 stores in the UK and Ireland during the quarter, and continued with its trial stores in Spain, opening another four stores during the period.
"I am pleased to report another good quarter of sales growth and a record Christmas trading period. Despite the tough trading conditions, Poundland continued to perform well, and we served more than 7 million shoppers in the peak Christmas trading week alone," said Chief Executive Jim McCarthy in the company's statement.
The group said it remains on track to open 60 net new stores in the UK and Ireland this year, and has a "very strong" pipeline for its next financial year.
"We have managed our costs and cash well, and we are in line with our financial expectations for the year as a whole," said McCarthy.
By Rowena Harris-Doughty; [email protected]; @rharrisdoughty
Copyright 2015 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
PLND.L