Crawshaw Group PLC Trading Update (0356B)
05 January 2018 - 6:00PM
UK Regulatory
TIDMCRAW
RNS Number : 0356B
Crawshaw Group PLC
05 January 2018
5 January 2018
Crawshaw Group Plc
Trading Update
Sales driven by rollout of factory shop format
Crawshaw Group Plc ("Crawshaw", the "Company" or the "Group"),
the UK's leading value butcher, provides the following update on
seasonal trading for the 15 week period to 24 December 2017.
Continued progress was made in the period against the group's
strategy to strengthen its position as Britain's leading value
butcher, delivering great quality fresh meat at amazing value
everyday.
Total group sales for the 15 week period increased by +0.6%
versus the prior year, with group gross margin also increasing by
+0.6%. The performance for the 15 week period was underpinned by
the strength of the growing factory shop format, which helped to
offset the impact of lower footfall on the high street and the
overall softer consumer sentiment (group LFL sales at -6.1% and
group LFL customers -2.6%). We experienced a strong core festive
trade with group sales in the week leading up to Christmas reaching
a record GBP1.8m and almost 3,500 amazing value meat hampers
sold.
Since our last update, we have opened two more new factory shop
units to complete the five planned for the year, taking the total
to 10 factory shops within the 54-shop estate. The factory shops
delivered a strong festive trade accounting for a quarter of group
sales in the period. As previously noted, our factory shop model is
proven with our 10 factory shops continuing to perform well and are
on track to deliver a circa one-year cash payback.
The transformative partnership with the 2Sisters Food Group is
progressing well with core poultry supply routes well established
and a framework for successful new product category tests landing
over the festive period. We are already looking to leverage the
supply agreement to expand this type of activity to increase the
basket spend of our existing customers and to incentivise more new
customers to build us into their regular shopping routine.
The softer consumer environment has impacted the progress we
were seeing on LFL sales and, coupled with the certainty of
additional cost inflation flowing through, we expect this to
continue to act as a drag on profitability in the high street
shops. We are making progress on re-balancing the portfolio towards
the factory shop model, which underpins the long-term profitability
of the business, and we anticipate a period of transition as the
necessary actions are taken.
Further details on the progress of our growth plan and our
strategic review will be provided with our full year results
announced in April 2018.
Noel Collett, CEO, commented:
"On balance, this was a solid core Christmas trading performance
against what remains a very tough high street environment. Our
biggest ever Christmas week and the record number of meat hampers
sold clearly demonstrates the trust our customers place in us for
their most important meat spend of the year. This gives us a solid
platform to improve trading momentum going into 2018.
"We continue to focus on strengthening Crawshaws' position as
the country's best value butcher. We are excited by the performance
of our factory shops and by the progress of our 2Sisters supply
agreement and, while there is much to do, we remain confident that
this combination will be transformational for the long-term growth
of the company."
The information contained within this announcement is deemed by
the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under
the Market Abuse Regulations.
Enquiries:
Tulchan Communications LLP
Susanna Voyle, Will Smith 0207 353 4200
Crawshaw Group plc
Noel Collett, Alan Richardson 01709 369 600
Peel Hunt LLP
Adrian Trimmings, George Sellar 020 7418 8900
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
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