Poundland within touching distance of £1bn annual sales figure
DISCOUNT retailer Poundland is now just £2.2m away from the £1bn of annual sales landmark after experiencing a 13.3% sales hike over the last year.
Announcing its full year results to March 30, the Willenhall-based business – which recently floated on the stock market – reported total sales of £997.8m (2013: £880.5m).
Its first set of post-flotation results show underlying pre-tax profits were up by 23.5% to £36.8m (2013: £29.8m), although pre-tax profits were down -18.9% to £21.5m – partly as a result of the costs associated with its IPO (initial public offering).
Poundland has also manged to reduce its net debt significantly to £4.7m (2013: £9.2m).
Over the period the retailer has opened 70 new stores and grown the estate by 15.3% to 528 stores (2013: 458).
It also annnounced the Spanish trial of Dealz with a plan to open an initial ten stores over a two year period. Its first store in Spain opened yesterday.
The scale of Poundland’s offering can be evidenced by its customer numbers. It now serves nearly five million customers a week.
Jim McCarthy, chief executive of Poundland, said: “This was a transformational year for Poundland culminating in our successful IPO in March.
“I am pleased to report that in our maiden set of results we have delivered excellent growth in sales, as well as in underlying EBITDA and EPS, whilst generating strong cash flow.
“In addition to strong trading in the UK, the next leg of our international expansion is now underway with the opening yesterday of our first Spanish store in Torremolinos.”
