Nisa CEO Nick Read has hailed a “transformational year” as the buying group beat its profit forecast for the year to 3 April.
Nisa said it delivered profit of £7.3m at an EBITDA level compared with a loss of £2.9m for the previous year, the first loss in the company’s history.
When he announced the loss last year, Read set a profit target of £7.2m for the 2016 financial year.
Sales fell 1.9% to £1,309m. This would have been down 3.8% if adjusting for week 53 but up 2.3% if adjusting for the loss of its biggest member Costcutter in 2014.
“It has been a challenging, but ultimately pleasing year for Nisa,” said Read.
“The business experienced the biggest swing in profit in its 39-year history as we sought to stabilise the company, address historical issues and lay the foundations to return to profitable growth and build for it a sustainable business model. Nisa is now very much back on an upward curve, with the business having already seen a 3.5% increase in weekly sales in the first 12 weeks of FY17, and we are extremely positive about our future.”
Highlights during the year included a 6% increase in fresh sales to £201m while its Heritage own label sales were up 7.9% to £119m.
Nisa also said its distribution costs per case fell by 3.2%, its overhead costs reduced by 12.3% and that it was now able to pay rebates of £3.1m, which was withheld during the year, back to members.
“It has been an extremely busy period, and during the course of the year the business has secured an extension to its banking facilities, reduced central overheads by 12.3%, addressed loss-making accounts, recruited substantial commercial contracts, and, excluding Costcutter, reversed the downward trend in total sales, all of which delivered benefits to the wider membership,” added Read.
He also explained that Nisa had enjoyed a positive year of recruitment, boosting membership numbers by 476 stores to reach an overall total of 2,915.
Nisa said its distribution operations had performed strongly and hit its target of 97.5% stock availability.
In the coming year, Nisa said it would look to improve its offer both in terms of its Heritage own label offer and range optimisation for members.
It said that it did not expect to be significantly affected by the collapse of My Local, which was a member of Nisa and fell into administration this week.
“This was anticipated and no material loss is expected to arise after recovery of insurance proceeds and utilisation of provisions held at the year end,” explained Read.
No comments yet