22nd Mar 2007 07:03
Beale PLC22 March 2007 22 March 2007 TRADING STATEMENT Ahead of the Annual General Meeting of Beale PLC (the "Company") being held thisafternoon, the Company will give the following update on trading: The Directors of Beale plc announce that, due to disappointing trading duringthe Autumn/ Winter 2006 season, the Company is likely to fall slightly short ofmarket expectations for the financial year ending 3 November 2007. Whilst current season trading is positive with very encouraging full marginsales of our Spring/Summer fashion ranges, it has not been sufficient to date tocompensate for the Autumn/Winter shortfall and in the current tradingenvironment the board believes it would be imprudent to assume the tradingshortfall will be recouped in the remainder of the year. The requirement toclear residual stocks from the 2006 Autumn/Winter season over the past twomonths has meant that our margins have been under pressure. Total sales, including concessions and VAT, for the past eight weeks to 17 Marchwere higher than last year by 3.9 %. Like for like sales, which exclude the newHorsham store, were flat. We are hopeful this more positive sales trend willcontinue and is due, we believe, to the positive impact of our new buying team.Cumulative total sales and like for like sales for the 20 weeks to 17 March arerespectively 4.0 % and 3.3 % below those for last year. However, thesecomparisons are adversely affected by the high sales volumes achieved during theWalton store closure sale in January 2006 and the Bournemouth and Poole stores'strong performance during the closure of the Castlepoint shopping centre throughDecember 2005 and the first two weeks of January 2006. We will review our trading performance over coming months before making a firmdecision on this year's interim dividend. The Group suffered significant disruption in both the Bournemouth and Poolestores last year due to refurbishment; we are confident that this will result inan improved sales performance in both these stores during the coming months whencompared with last year. In our Horsham store, we are taking action to mitigatethe difficulties being faced by some of our concession partners, which willinclude the introduction of Claudia Strater, Hobbs, Elvi, Montgomery softfurnishings and stationery. After a successful pilot during Christmas 2006, theCompany will launch an on line trading web site in May 2007. For further information: Beale PLC Tavistock Communications Corporate SynergyAllan Allkins, Chief Executive Lulu Bridges Barrie Newton Ken Owst, Finance Director Polly Hutchinson Tel: 01225 424666Tel: 01202 552022 Tel: 020 7920 3150 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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