City round-up: B&M; Surface Transforms; Secure Trust Bank
Retailer B&M has made a strong start to the financial year with Q1 revenues climbing 3.1% as consumers flocked to buy gardening products.
In a trading update for the 13-week period from 28 March 2021 to 26 June 2021, the group also opened seven new stores, but also closed four underperforming sites.
Its Heron Foods business delivered “a satisfactory performance” while revenues in France increased by 26.9%, with Q1 both this year and in the prior year being impacted by six weeks of varying lockdown restrictions.
Simon Arora, Chief Executive, said: “The Group has made a strong start to the new financial year and sales remain significantly above pre-pandemic levels.
“As expected, trading throughout the first quarter was volatile as we annualised against the high comparatives from last year.
“Although there remains much uncertainty as to how consumer spending evolves over the coming months, we remain optimistic that our combination of exceptional value across a wide range of product categories and our convenient Out of Town locations will continue to resonate with customers.”
David Bundred
Brake specialist Surface Transforms has reported a 34% uplift in revenues for the half year to 30 June 2021.
Turnover for this period stood at £1.2m, up from £900,000 for the same period in the prior year, exceeding managements’ original expectation that sales in the period would be broadly unchanged from the run rate achieved in H1-2020.
The Knowsley-based company, which makes brakes for high performance cars and aircraft, said it expects revenues to further increase in the final quarter of 2021, following start of production on the multi-year OEM contracts already awarded to Surface Transforms.
Chairman David Bundred said: “This encouraging sales performance, does not yet include the impact of previously announced contract wins. As previously reported, we anticipate a ramp up of revenues from our new OEM contracts in the final quarter of 2021. In parallel, we are most encouraged by the strategic progress made on further contract opportunities.
“Similarly, positive progress has been made with regard to equipment installation. The combination of these factors enable the Company to reiterate that it remains on track to report a profit before tax in 2022, with further significant growth contracted for many years thereafter.”
The Board of Secure Trust Bank has announced the sale of its remaining portfolio of SME asset finance agreements and equipment to Blackburn-headquartered Haydock Finance.
STB ceased originating this type of asset finance business in 2018, running its lending balances down further from £10.4m at 31 December 2020.
In a market update today STB said: “The sale is in line with STB’s strategy of focusing on the areas of the business that have the strongest prospects for delivering sustainable and profitable medium to long-term growth.”
