Outlook tasty for Patisserie Valerie owner as profits grow 18%

BIRMINGHAM-based catering group Patisserie Holdings has announced its tenth consecutive year of revenue and profits growth alongside a pledge to continue expanding the business.

The group said its business continued to grow and perform extremely well, driven principally by the strong appeal of its Patisserie Valerie brand.

It said that despite uncertain market conditions it had seen annual revenues for the year ended September 30, 2016 exceed £100m for the first time to £104.1m, an increase of £12.2m or 13.3% (2015: £91.9m).

EBITDA was £22.2m, an increase of £3.4m or 18.1% (2015: £18.8m) and pre-tax profit was £17.2m, an increase of £2.6m or 18.2% (2015: £14.6m).

Basic earnings per share was 13.74p (2015: 11.41p) and diluted earnings per share was 13.60p (2015: 11.32p), an increase of 20.4% and 20.1% respectively.

Revenues from the group’s largest brand, Patisserie Valerie, which trades from 135 stores, were £73.9m, up £11m or 17.6% (2015: £62.9m from 116 stores) and revenues from its other brands were £30.2m, up £1.1m or 4.1% (2015 £29.1m).

Online sales also showed a healthy improvement, up 23% to £3.8m (2015: £3.1m).

During the year the group opened 21 new stores including flagship stores in Belfast, the new £150m Resorts World Birmingham complex and Oxford Street in London.

Its new outlet in Northern Ireland has an attached bakery with capacity to support a further 10 stores, while it said the new standalone bakery opened in Edinburgh would facilitate future expansion in Scotland.

Six new stores opened since the year end and the group said it had a “well developed pipeline” for 2017, with the target to open 20 new stores.

Luke Johnson, executive chairman, said: “The excellent results for the year show the continuing appeal of our brands, the financial strength of the group and the strong cash generative nature of our business model.

“We have achieved growth in revenues and profits despite uncertain economic conditions and for the first time we have exceeded revenues of £100m: a significant achievement. Our roll-out programme continues to deliver successful store openings and I am particularly pleased with the performance of our first store in Northern Ireland.
 
“Our strategy remains that of organic growth; however we are well positioned to make acquisitions should any suitable opportunities arise.”

He said performance for the first eight weeks of the year had been encouraging and it had  already opened six new stores.

“We have a strong pipeline for the year ahead with a number of promising locations already secured,” he added.

“We will continue to control costs and manage our supply chain in this period of macro-economic uncertainty, thus I am confident of another successful year of growth.”