Meaty results for Crawshaw after successful year
FRESH meat firm Crawshaw Group has reported sales and pretax profits have risen this year, after acquisitions and new shop openings.
Total group sales were up to £24.6m from £21.0m, whilst pretax profit increased from £1.0m to £1.2m for the year ending
The Group operates from a head office and distribution centre in Rotherham, plus 22 retail locations across Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.
Last May the company acquired East Yorkshire Beef Ltd for a total consideration of £246,500 in cash, and the future looks bright for the firm who recently acquired a North West butchers chain for £4m.
Additional sales have been generated by new shop openings in Sheffield in March and a factory shop in Rotherham in November.
Chairman Richard Rose, who owns a 6.7% share of the company said: “I am very pleased with the progress made to date on our plans to open 200 shops.
“The post year end acquisition of Gabbotts Farm has provided 11 additional profitable shops and a distribution centre in the North West of England.
“We have also recently signed leases on new shops in Leeds and Bolton which are currently being fitted out. In addition there are a number of other locations in the process of being signed up.
“It is a very exciting time for the business and whilst short term profits will be held in check for a while as we add infrastructure costs ahead of the curve, we very much look forward to reporting on our progress as we build scale as quickly as practically possible.”
Average customer spend rose 3.5% to £6.22 versus last year, up 13%, which comes as the firm reaps the rewards of focussing on value packs and multi-buy offers. Customer numbers are 3.2% higher than last year (2014: -1%).
Dividends of 57p (including interim dividends) was a 10% increase on the previous year.
