Black Country-based Poundland shares slump
Shares in Black Country-based Poundland have slumped after it revealed tough trading on the high street this Christmas with a drop in customer numbers.
But its overall takings were boosted by its £55 million takeover of 99p Stores last year, which helped hike sales revenue by 30 per cent to almost £425 million in the 13 weeks to December 27.
Shares in the £1 for everything chain, which has its head office in Willenhall and a major distribution site in Bilston, fell more than 10 per cent after the trading update, to an all time low of 171p.
Chief executive Jim McCarthy, said: "Total sales in the third quarter increased by 30.1 per cent on a constant currency basis and our Christmas and Halloween ranges were our best ever.
"However, the trading conditions that we experienced in November continued through the third quarter, with high street customer numbers down year on year and this has impacted sales growth."
Despite this, Mr McCarthy said he was very encouraged by the sales uplifts of converted 99p Stores and by the speed and efficiency of the conversion process and that he expected the store conversion programme to be substantially complete by the end of April.
The group remains on track to open around 70 net new Poundland and Dealz stores in the UK and Ireland in the full year and around 60 in the next financial year.
Poundland expects pre-tax profit for the year to March to be towards the lower end of the range of market expectations of between £39.8 million to £45.8m
A new multi-price format will launch in April 2016 in a number of the larger Family Bargains stores that were acquired with 99p Stores.
Poundland store numbers are now at 628 in the UK with 51 Dealz stores in Ireland and a growing number in Spain. There are also 227 stores in the remaining 99p Stores estate.
