Topps chief hails "robust" performance
TOPPS Tiles’ chief executive Matthew Williams praised the “robust” performance of his company as it declared increases in both sales and profit margins in the 53 weeks to October 2.
The company reported a 2% increase in sales to £182.4m and a 1.7% increase in like-for-like sales, stripping out the impact of the extra week’s trading and the three extra stores which were added during the course of the year. Last year, like-for-like sales dropped by 13.1%.
Topps, whose headoffice and IT functions are carried out at its Cheadle Hulme headquarters, said that group pre-tax profit margins increased to 6.8% from 5.5% as it declared a pre-tax profit of £12.4m (£9.9m), although adjusted profits which discount one-off charges relating to restructuring costs and interest rate derivatives were slightly lower at £16.3m (£17.5m).
Williams said that the company, which now trades from 312 stores, has continued to trade well in the first seven weeks of the new financial year, with like-for-like sales increasing by 3.2%.
“We are encouraged by current trading despite the challenging economic outlook and subdued levels of consumer confidence,” he said. “We are confident that the business will benefit from our growth strategy and our continued focus on delivering outstanding value to our customers.”
By October 2, the company’s net debt had reduced by more than £22m to £49.1m (2009: 71.2m), although this was largely due to a £15.4m equity fundraising exercise last November.
As a result, Topps remains well within its banking covenants and Chairman Barry Bester said that it had begun early discussions with its bankers about extending its current banking facilities well ahead of their expiry deadline in 2012. AS a result, the firm decided to restart dividend payments and will pay a final dividend payment of one pence per share.
“Our performance for the period has demonstrated the resilience of our business model and the prudence of management’s decisions regarding the pursuit of growth, expansion of the store estate and marketing of the business,” said Bester.
