News: Crawshaw reports on continued improvement
In a year that saw significant changes to VAT rules and major supermarkets hit by the horse meat scandal, Crawshaw, the Rotherham-based meat-focused retailer, has seen a rise in like for like sales and an increase in earnings and profit, resulting in the first ever dividend for shareholders.
In its financial results for the year ended January 31 2013, the Bradmarsh Business Park company saw overall sales for the year of £18.8m, slightly down from the previous years figure of £18.9m but said that this was due to the planned scale back of less profitable sales channels.
Like for like sales were up 3% following the disappointing dip last year, which meant that EBITDA (earnings) went up by 15% at £0.7m and profit before tax came in at £0.3m compared to a nil figure in 2012.
The good results meant that debt has been reduced to zero and new financial arrangements since the year end has seen the group reduce its mortgage from £840k to £540k and extend the facilities for a further three years.
Last year, Richard Rose, chairman of Crawshaw, stated that his confidence in sales growth had been undermined by the Chancellor's decision to propose the introduction of VAT on hot food.
Following a u-turn by the government, retailers have been able to sell hot products "on the cool", straight out of the oven and avoid the 20% VAT charge and Crawshaw invested in equipment, additional staff and staff training to prepare for the changes.
Crawshaw's 20 outlets cook smaller batches of roast chickens and cooked meat joints much more often and letting them cool naturally for short periods so they will be freshly cooked for customers.
Richard Rose, chairman of Crawshaw, said: "The measures taken to improve our performance in the face of a very tough retail climate have been working and I'm pleased to be able to report a continued improvement in trading.
"The retail climate remains challenging; however I am encouraged by the continued improvements in trading over the first 12 weeks of the current year. Like for like sales are ahead and we are particularly pleased with the further increases in gross margin and improvements in cost we are achieving.
"The Board is delighted to propose its maiden dividend of 0.2 pence per share."
He added that the VAT change was a "disruptive, expensive and challenging development that we could have done without, and our performance would have been better without the change."
Crawshaw website
Images: Crawshaw
In its financial results for the year ended January 31 2013, the Bradmarsh Business Park company saw overall sales for the year of £18.8m, slightly down from the previous years figure of £18.9m but said that this was due to the planned scale back of less profitable sales channels.
Like for like sales were up 3% following the disappointing dip last year, which meant that EBITDA (earnings) went up by 15% at £0.7m and profit before tax came in at £0.3m compared to a nil figure in 2012.
The good results meant that debt has been reduced to zero and new financial arrangements since the year end has seen the group reduce its mortgage from £840k to £540k and extend the facilities for a further three years.
Last year, Richard Rose, chairman of Crawshaw, stated that his confidence in sales growth had been undermined by the Chancellor's decision to propose the introduction of VAT on hot food.
Following a u-turn by the government, retailers have been able to sell hot products "on the cool", straight out of the oven and avoid the 20% VAT charge and Crawshaw invested in equipment, additional staff and staff training to prepare for the changes.
Crawshaw's 20 outlets cook smaller batches of roast chickens and cooked meat joints much more often and letting them cool naturally for short periods so they will be freshly cooked for customers.
Richard Rose, chairman of Crawshaw, said: "The measures taken to improve our performance in the face of a very tough retail climate have been working and I'm pleased to be able to report a continued improvement in trading.
"The retail climate remains challenging; however I am encouraged by the continued improvements in trading over the first 12 weeks of the current year. Like for like sales are ahead and we are particularly pleased with the further increases in gross margin and improvements in cost we are achieving.
"The Board is delighted to propose its maiden dividend of 0.2 pence per share."
He added that the VAT change was a "disruptive, expensive and challenging development that we could have done without, and our performance would have been better without the change."
Crawshaw website
Images: Crawshaw
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