Crawshaw fears ‘pasty tax’ impact

THE chairman of butcher’s shop chain Crawshaw has criticised the Chancellor’s “pasty tax” as the company revealed it had broken even for the year despite suffering falling sales.

The retailer saw like for like sales drop by 4% over the course of the year although performance improved in the final quarter over Christmas where sales grew 2%.

It also absorbed the costs of a reorganisation of its operations which saw it close its Doncaster market presence and open a new format store in Derby.

Chairman Richard Rose said measures taken last year to improve sales had boosted his confidence but this had been “undermined” by Chancellor George Osborne’s decision to change the VAT rules on hot food.

“Having worked extremely hard to offer good value to our loyal customers, and to maintain key affordable price points, I find it very unfair that small format high street food retailers, and hard pressed families and pensioners, are being targeted in this way.
 
“Some 38% of our sales are generated from hot food, and we are unable to predict the effect this imposition of VAT will have on our performance. We will of course do everything possible to mitigate any negative impact,” he said.
 
Pre-tax profit fell from £600,000 to nil for the year to the end of January while EBITDA fell from £1m to £600,000.

The company also reduced its net debt from £500,000 to £200,000.