Interim Management Statement

24 July 2013

Findel plc (the "Group")

AGM Trading Statement and Interim Management Statement

At the Annual General Meeting to be held at 11.00am today David Sugden, Chairman, will make the following Interim Management Statement which covers the 16 week period from 30 March 2013 to 23 July 2013.

Group Performance

The Group has made a very good start to the year and continues to make excellent progress. Group sales during the period were 3.9% ahead of the prior year (5.4% excluding our Far East sourcing operation), with continuing strong performance from Express Gifts together with the anticipated recovery in Findel Education.

Express Gifts, our Home Shopping business and the largest business in the Group, has maintained a strong performance, with sales 8.0% ahead of prior year. Customer numbers continue to grow as we move towards Express Gifts' peak sales period leading up to Christmas, with the majority of the sales growth coming from existing customers and retention rates improved by 5%. Bad debt indicators remain stable. The significant on-going efforts to improve supplier management, together with the re-focussing of our Far East sourcing operation, are bearing fruit, although the planned decline in the external sales of our sourcing operation suppressed the Group's overall sales growth by 1.5%.

Within Kleeneze, our efforts to arrest the sales decline through providing greater value for both distributors and consumers have had some early success. Sales in the period were 1.4% behind last year, with an improving trend in recent weeks, compared with a decline during the previous year of 8.4%.

Work on the turnaround in Kitbag continues, although sales were 4.0% below the prior year in the period, reflecting in part a strong comparative period for sales and margin, which last year benefited from the UEFA Euro Football Championship, the build-up to the Olympics and significant football partner on field success. The business has recently been awarded the contract for onsite retail management at the Ryder Cup in 2014. Growth in international markets continues to show promise, with the business rolling out 11 international local language sites for partners in the last three months.

We are very pleased that as anticipated our Education Supplies business has shown a much improved sales and margin performance during the period. Although we have recently noted a change in school buying behaviour, with an increasing tendency towards smoothing purchases over the year rather than at traditional peaks, sales have grown overall by 9.0%, with the core UK brands growing at 6.0% and our International business returning to growth at 21% versus prior year.

Outlook

Findel continues to make excellent progress with further potential to be delivered in all Group companies. At the full-year results in June, the Group set a goal of achieving 7 - 9% Group operating margin in the medium term. The strong performances of Express Gifts and Education Supplies (which account for approximately three-quarters of Group sales) support the Board's ambition to enter this range in the financial year commencing April 2014.

Enquiries

Findel plc Roger Siddle / Tim Kowalski0161 303 3465

Tulchan Communications LLPStephen Malthouse / Susanna Voyle / Michelle Clarke020 7353 4200