Year of growth for clothing retailer
YORKSHIRE retailer Bonmarché has stepped out in style with a set of robust results, reporting rises in both profit and revenue as the business drives forward at a pace.
The Wakefield-based business, which floated on AIM at the end of last year, announced in its preliminary results for the year ended March 29 2014, the first year end as a listed company, that full year revenue was up 11.9% at £164.3m and the group reported pre-tax profit of £8m, up 66.1% from last year. Operating profit increased 40% to £8.2m.
Market share of women’s value sector increased by 14% from 2.8% to 3.2%, like-for-like store sales increased 10.4% year-on-year and multi-channel sales have grown by 84% during the financial year.
In the last year, Bonmarché, which was launched in 1982 and is one of the UK’s largest women’s value retailers, focused on the over 50’s market, also opened two concessions within garden centres operated by a third party and the group said it has been “very encouraged” by the initial sales results of this initiative and has now started a significant roll-out programme.
Beth Butterwick, chief executive officer of Bonmarché, said: “I am pleased with the strong financial performance in the period since the IPO. FY14 was the first full year of implementing our new Business Plan and we have made good progress in each of our key strategic areas: product, multi-channel, stores and our service proposition.
“We are confident that the successful execution of our forward growth strategy, combined with our established position as one of the largest pure-play value retailers dedicated to women over 50, will enable us to continue building on our appeal and accessibility to these customers and, in turn, deliver value for our shareholders.
“We are encouraged by our start to the current financial year and the board remains positive about the outlook for the coming year. There is still much to deliver against our strategy set out in 2012, and I look forward to working with the board and colleagues on what will be another exciting year.”
Non-executive chairman, Tim Mason, added: “Despite the difficult economic conditions, we have been able to drive the business forward at a pace, and the robust results reflect the growth achieved during the financial year.”
The board has recommended a final dividend of 2.1p per share.
