Bargain Booze owner toasts above par performance

CHESHIRE-based Conviviality Retail which runs the Bargain Booze franchise across the UK, is expecting yield revenues of £364m for 2014/15, up 2.3% on last year’s turnover of £355.7m.

EBITDA is forecast to be slightly ahead of market expectations with the company set to end the year with cash in excess of £1m.

This is despite the phasing of new store openings later than expected in the year and the continued heavy discounting in the market.

Retail sales are in line with last year, but like for like retail sales for Bargain Booze stores were down 1.7% with underlying sales per store increasing by 0.5%, reflecting an improvement in the quality of the portfolio, the Crewe-headquartered company said.

Its Wine Rack brand continues to show modest growth with like for like sales up 0.1%.

In February, Conviviality acquired GT News (Holdings) for £6m, bringing an additional 37 stores into the 575-outlet group and later in that month announced that the majority would be franchised to Jonathan James.

In trading update statement, the company said:  “One of our key objectives over the last year was to help our franchisee partners to build more profitable and successful businesses.

“This is succeeding with 21 existing franchisees opening additional stores and we have welcomed 35 new franchisees into the group.

“Our franchisees now have the opportunity to earn £14,000 per store more than two years ago, through a consistent improvement in retail margin and the benefits of our award winning franchisee share scheme.”

Meanwhile, the company has announced the appointment of Carol Savage as chief customer officer.

Chief executive Diana Hunter said: “2014/15 has been a year of solid progress for Conviviality and we are pleased with everything that has been achieved. The significant changes we have implemented over the last two years ensure we are well positioned to drive growth into the business and the Board looks to the future with confidence.”