News blog

Crawshaw Group

• BY: Andrew Hore |
• POSTED: 28/04/2014 |

Meat and deli products retailer Crawshaw Group reported a near-quadrupled profit for the year to January 2014.

Revenues improved from £18.8m to £21m and there was a £1m increase in gross profit to £9.2m. The majority of that increase in gross profit fell through to pre-tax profit, which jumped from £251,000 to £985,000. Strong cash generation meant that net cash improved from £11,000 to £978,000.

Crawshaw is paying a final dividend of 0.43p a share, taking the total for the year to 0.52p a share, up from 0.2p a share the previous year. The shares go ex-dividend on 25 June.

At 37.5p a share, up 3.5p, Crawshaw is valued at £21.7m.

Like-for-like sales are 12% higher in the initial 12 weeks of the new financial year. A profit of £1.3m, a 24% upgrade, is forecast for 2014-15, which puts the shares on 21 times prospective earnings. 

A further store has been opened in Sheffield since January, taking the total to 21. Fit out costs for new stores have been reduced. There is likely to be a much larger investment in new stores this year, although this will be funded from cash generated from operations. There should be an additional two store openings this year and another two openings next year.

Download the latest AIM Journal from http://www.hubinvest.com/AIMPDFApril2014_55.pdf