14th Jan 2015 10:22
LONDON (Alliance News) - Footwear retailer Shoe Zone PLC Wednesday said profit growth in its last financial year was driven by an improved gross margin and tight cost control, despite lower revenue resulting from store closures and refits.
Shoe Zone, which listed on London's AIM market last May, said its financial results were in line with market expectations with a pretax profit of GBP10.5 million for the year to October 4, up from GBP5.1 million last year.
"This was driven by an improvement in gross margin, strong cost control, online growth and the continued optimisation of the store portfolio," the group said in a statement.
While profits were up on the prior year, revenue fell by almost 11% to GBP172.9 million as it closed a number of stores as part of its rationalisation programme. Its product gross margin however, strengthened to 61.3%, from 59.4% last year.
The group declared a maiden dividend of 3.6 pence per share.
"We have delivered a year of solid profit growth and are continuing to deliver on our self-help strategies outlined at IPO," said Chief Executive Anthony Smith in a statement.
"Despite the well documented warm start to the Autumn/Winter season, we believe that 2015 will be a further year of growth for the group. The board continues to see significant opportunities ahead and remains confident that the business will perform in line with market expectations," Smith added.
Shoe Zone has been opening new stores, while relocating and refitting existing stores in its portfolio. It has also been investing in product range development, its online business, and ways to improve the business operationally.
"We have opened 17 new stores, including six relocations, and completed 45 store refits, spending GBP1.9 million on capital expenditure to achieve this. We have closed a number of temporary stores reducing total sales but helping improve profitability," the retailer said.
Since year end, the group said it has opened six new stores with a further 10 under offer, taking the total number of stores it trades from to 545.
Shoe Zone shares were up 1.9% at 237.00 pence mid-morning Wednesday.
By Rowena Harris-Doughty; [email protected]; @rharrisdoughty
Copyright 2015 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
Shoe Zone