Poundland’s annual revenue tops £1bn for the first time
DISCOUNT retailer Poundland has revealed that its annual revenue has broken through the £1bn barrier.
In a fourth quarter trading statement released this morning, the firm disclosed that in the 12 months to March 29, on an actual currency basis, total revenue, excluding Spain, increased by 11.4% to £1,111.5m (2014: £997.8m).
The Willenhall-based firm saw total sales, excluding Spain, increase by 11.8% (2014: 12.7%) on a constant currency basis while like-for-like sales increased by 2.4% (2014: 1.9%).
Poundland, which found out this week that its planned £55m acquisition of rival 99p Stores is to be reviewed by the Competition and Markets Authority, opened some 60 net new stores in the UK & Ireland during the period
During the fourth quarter, total revenue, excluding Spain, increased by 7.1% on a constant currency basis (2014: 13.9%).
On an actual currency basis, total revenue, excluding Spain, increased by 6.5% (2014: 14.4%) to £255m (2014: £239.5m).
Poundland suiggests this represents a solid performance against a strong trading period in the previous financial year.
“As we have previously highlighted, due to the timing of store openings, the contribution from new store trading weeks this year has been lower than last year and this continued to be the case in the fourth quarter,” it said.
“As planned, we opened ten fewer stores in the year as a whole than in the previous year and this was also a factor in a lower contribution to sales growth from new stores in the quarter.”
The group ended the financial year with 547 stores in the UK and 41 stores in Ireland (2014: 497 and 31 respectively) and has a strong pipeline of stores for the current financial year.
At the end of the quarter it had five stores in Spain and has since opened its third store in Madrid.
The group generated strong cash flow during the period and ended the 2015 financial year with net cash of £13.9m (2014: net debt of £4.7m).
Chief executive Jim McCarthy said: “After a solid quarter of sales growth, Poundland’s revenue for the 2015 financial year was over £1bn for the first time.
“Despite tough trading conditions, Poundland continues to perform well and we served an average of 5.3m shoppers a week during the quarter.
“We have managed our costs and cash well, and we expect underlying pretax profits to be in line with market expectations for the year as a whole.
“We achieved our target of 60 net new stores in the UK and Ireland and have a very strong pipeline of store openings for the current financial year.
“We expect to continue to deliver our growth strategy in the new financial year, notwithstanding some headwinds from a weaker Euro and a tough comparable in the first half.”
