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AIM-listed butchery chain Crawshaw Group has reported a 17% uplift in full-year group sales.

Turnover rose from £21m to £24.6m in the year to 31 January 2015, the company said, with pre-tax profit up from £1m to £1.2m. EBITDA, meanwhile, rose 15% to £1.6m.

Crawshaw said sales were boosted by its new Sheffield store, which opened in March, as well as its new factory shop, which opened in Rotherham in November.

Average consumer spend rose 3.5% to £6.22 during the year, thanks to a focus on larger value packs and multibuys. Hot cooked products also boosted customer numbers by 3.2%.

Chairman Richard Rose said that since the end of the financial year like-for-likes were, as expected, lower than last year “given the exceptional growth for the comparable period last year.”

He added: “Each and every one of our stores were profitable during the year under review, and this gives us much confidence in the scalability of our model. It is a very exciting time for the business and while short term profits will be held in check for a while as we add infrastructure costs ahead of the curve, we very much look forward to reporting on our progress as we build scale as quickly and as practically possible.”

Morning update

English winemaker Chapel Down Group has reported record sales as it revealed 2014 yielded its largest-ever harvest. The company, which raised £3.95m in crowd-funding last September to boost its expansion plans, said year-on-year sales rose 21% to a record £6.1m in the year to 31 December 2014. Pre-tax profit leapt 175% to £187,000. It added that it was already putting the money raised through its crowd-funding scheme to good use and had secured new vineyards and equipment.

“With an excellent management team, a very strong balance sheet enhanced by a superb crowd-funding campaign, many new and enthusiastic shareholders and customers and more stock of sparkling wine to become available, we remain confident that the prospects for the group are excellent,” said chairman John Dunsmore.

Scottish co-operative society Scotmid posted a £1m increase in operating profit to £5.5m for the year to 31 January, on turnover up £5m to £436m.

Though CEO John Brodie described the results as a “solid set of figures”, he warned: “Although this is a positive set of results it continues to be a challenging marketplace which requires us to innovate, work hard and, where necessary, take tough decisions. While remaining cautious and measured in our approach, the society will continue to drive new initiatives and look for other potential areas for growth.”

Last month, Scotmid announced plans to merger with co-op minnow Seaton Valley.

Yesterday in the City

The three listed UK grocers all played a part in dragging down the FTSE 100 yesterday, led, of course, by Tesco (TSCO). After revealing it made the biggest loss in its near 100-year history – and the biggest-ever single retail loss – Tesco shares initial crept up a few pence before beginning a steady decline. The annual loss of £6.4bn as it massively wrote down its property portfolio was couple with no further updates on the disposal of any assets. It left shares in Britain’s biggest retailer down 5.2% to 222.7p. The stock had made big gains so far in 2015 as investors were impressed by headway made by CEO Dave Lewis, but today’s fall takes it back to levels not seen since early January.

Tesco’s misfortune was a reminder of just how much trouble the whole supermarket sector is in at the moment and saw shares in Morrisons (MRW) and Sainsbury’s (SBRY) also down by 4.1% to 190.4p and 3.7% to 263p respectively. It meant the three grocers shared the ignominious spots of the three worst fallers of the day on London’s blue-chip index.

Overall it pushed the FTSE 100 index down 0.5% to 7,028.2 points.

Outside the 100 leading shares, Tate & Lyle (TATE) had a worse day than Tesco on the FTSE 250. Its share fell 5.3% to 608.5p following the announcement of the sell-off of plants in Europe and the restructuring of its Splenda sucralose brand.

In terms of risers there was not a much to write home about, with Real Good Food gaining back 6.3% to 34p after its profit warning earlier in the month and McBride jumped 2.6% to 98p on the back of its Q3 trading update.

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