Budgens has signed a deal with oil operator Conoco to open up food retail operations on 12 Jet forecourts. It expects to have 40 Jet sites open by the end of its financial year. The move is part of a general expansion after an encouraging set of interim results to November 14 1999, with pretax profit up 33% to £8.5m. Like-for-like sales were also up 4%, following on from the 2.5% increase seen in 1998. But chief executive John von Spreckelsen said he preferred to look at the more "conservative" figure of underlying retail operating profit of £7.7m, a rise of 13.7% on last year's comparable figure of £6.8m, for a true picture of the company's health. This figure strips out asset disposals over the past six months. The drive for growth has been most marked in the convenience sector, with fresh food and sandwiches the driving forces. The Buy British Campaign had also produced great results for the company. Von Spreckelsen said: "We have had thousands of letters of support from customers backing our stance in buying British apples and pears." The development costs for the home shopping venture ­ Budgens Direct ­ had been written off, he said, and the company would only decide whether the concept had been a success next July. The company has reported a "reasonable uptake" from its three home distribution depots at Runcorn, Harlow and Tamworth. It is also looking at rolling out a home delivery service from one of its central London stores to serve the capital within the next six months. The major boost to cashflow came with a sale and leaseback scheme on 10 of Budgens' freehold properties, netting the company £16.8m. The cash-rich company now has a £10m fighting fund, with a plan to increase its number of stores from 191 to 204. The major change will be an increase in the number of convenience store formats ­ slightly larger than the current b2 stores ­ from 10 to 18 by April this year. {{NEWS }}

Topics