TIDMCRAW

RNS Number : 6759S

Crawshaw Group PLC

27 June 2018

27 June 2018

Crawshaw Group Plc

("Crawshaw", the "Company" or the "Group")

AGM Trading and Strategic Update

Crawshaw Group Plc, the UK's leading value butcher, is today providing the following trading and strategic update for the 20 weeks to 17 June 2018, ahead of its Annual General Meeting to be held this afternoon.

Group sales were at -1.6% for the first 20 weeks of the current financial year with like-for-like sales down 12.9% for the same period. The trading performance of our high street shops remains challenging and reflects the widely reported lower footfall and softer consumer sentiment. Our factory shop format continues to perform well in this environment.

There are numerous key sales-driving and cost-saving initiatives currently being undertaken to improve performance in our high street estate including the strategic development of our central production to enable us to re-align the store labour model and improve instore efficiencies while promoting our high standards of customer service. With these initiatives well underway, we believe the majority of our high street stores are capable of generating an improved return.

We continue to work through this period of transition as we rebalance the portfolio away from its historical dependence on high streets and towards the unique and successful factory shop format, which underpins the long-term profitability of the business. We have opened a further 2 factory shops in the year taking our total to 12 within the estate and these shops are trading in line with the Board's expectations. We plan to open a further 3 new shops of this type during the remainder of current financial year.

Our strategic partnership with the 2Sisters Food Group continues to deliver the expected customer and financial benefits, which complements our new supplier relationships that have been developed.

Crawshaw Chief Executive Officer Jim Viggars, said:

"Whilst the trading performance in our high street estate remains challenging, our team of great colleagues will strive to capture available growth. Our factory shops continue to perform well, and I am confident that repositioning the Group towards the successful factory shop model will strengthen Crawshaws' position as the country's best value butcher and improve the long-term profitability of the business."

The Group will report its interim results for the six months ended 29 July 2018 on 26 September 2018.

Enquiries:

Citigate Dewe Rogerson

 
 Angharad Couch                     0161 914 9771 
 Crawshaw Group plc 
 Jim Viggars, Nick Taylor           01709 369 600 
 Peel Hunt LLP 
 Adrian Trimmings, George Sellar    0207 418 8900

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