Albemarle strikes gold in the downturn

Albemarle, which is Britain’s biggest pawnbroker with 148 stores including the Cheque and Pawn and Herbert Brown brands, said the value of items in its pledge book increased by 32 per cent in the final six months of 2010.

Its gold buying and selling business, which operates an additional 38 small shops, handled double the value of goods compared to a year ago as it benefited from people cashing in their old jewellery to take advantage of soaring prices of the precious metal.

Although revenues increased by 24 per cent to £48.8m in the half-year, profits were down 1 per cent to £11m after it paid to open 16 shops and 23 gold buying outlets.

Albemarle, which this month announced it is to sponsor the new world darts champion Adrian ‘Jackpot’ Lewis, is due to exit a gold hedging contract in June that at current prices will boost its profits by £3.4m a year.

The group also reported a 113 per cent increase in net income from its small personal loans business and plans to increase the number of products it offers.

Chief executive Barry Stevenson said: “This has been a good start to the financial year. Due to the step up in the rate of store roll-out under our five-year growth plan this will be the transitional year.

“It is clear from the research undertaken and the management team’s detailed analysis of the UK small loans market that there is substantial scope to market our products to a wider audience.”