Back to the drawing board at Crawshaw after “disappointing” performance

DESPITE a 29% increase in turnover, fresh meat suppliers Crawshaw have struggled this year putting on a “disappointing” performance, according to chief executive Noel Collett.

For the first half of the year, to 31 July 2016, Crawshaw increased revenues to £21.6m from £16.7m in the comparable period last year. It warned earlier this month that full year sales would be down.

However pre-tax losses widened from £100,000 to a loss of £400,000, which Crawshaw said was down to store investment and “softer” sales performance.

Mr Collett said the business was “acting quickly” to restore sales momentum and is focusing back on its value proposition. He said customer feedback was “relatively straightforward” – they want to see a return of value meat packs and other familiar products to their local stores.

The company has been investing in store expansion, completing work on core business infrastructure this year with nine new stores open in the six-month period.

Chief executive officer, Noel Collett, said: “We have made considerable progress with our store expansion program over the last 18 months but are very disappointed by the recent like-for-like sales performance as some of the price and range initiatives didn’t resonate with customers as we had expected.

“We are acting quickly to restore sales momentum by returning our focus to the local value-led proposition that has proved successful in the past.

“We have already re-introduced a locally driven, value-led promotion strategy which is bringing more customers in store, although these activities require short term margin investment and will therefore impact full year profit expectations.”