15th Oct 2018 09:34
LONDON (Alliance News) - Shoe Zone PLC on Monday said it intends to return GBP4 million of excess cash via a special dividend in March next year.
The footwear retailer added that pretax profit for the year ended September 29 will be ahead of market expectations and in excess of GBP11.0 million. In financial 2017, Shoe Zone recorded pretax profit of GBP9.8 million, which was down from GBP10.4 million the year before.
Shares in the company were trading 10% higher at 181.55 pence each Monday morning.
"This improvement is driven by a stronger revenue and margin performance from the spring/summer ranges as well as benefiting from progress achieved through the further development of the group's foreign exchange hedging policy," Shoe Zone said.
Revenue for the 2018 financial year is anticipated to total GBP61 million, up 1.8% on GBP157.8 million a year ago. The growth was attributed to strong performance in both physical and digital channels and completion of loss-making store rationalisation programme.
Net cash at period end stood at GBP15.7 million, up from GBP11.8 million a year ago.
"The new financial year has started well and there are a further 14 Big Box openings planned. We look forward to updating shareholders on progress at the time of our Final Results in January," said Chief Executive Nick Davis.
Shoe Zone will release its final results for the 52 weeks to September 29 on January 9.
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