New stores planned for Crawshaw

The Rotherham-based retailer said sales for the year to January 3 increased by more than 18 per cent to 19m from the previous year after a number of store openings.

But like for like sales fell by eight per cent as customers switched to cheaper products during the recession.

Gross profit increased by 20 per cent to 8.2m but operating profit fell from 854,000 to 318,000, excluding exceptional items, as operating costs increased. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation were 800,000 compared to 1.1m the previous year.

Crawshaw reduced its net debt over the year to 900,000 from 2.7m, while cash generated by operating activities doubled to 600,000.

Crawshaw has opened seven new stores since July 2008.

Chairman Richard Rose said: "The current financial year has started much more positively. Year to date trading, for both existing and new stores, for the 12 weeks to April 25 is ahead of budget, and with a rather higher gross margin than the start of last year, operating profit for the first two months of the year is significantly ahead of the first two months of last year.

"It is particularly pleasing that each one of our new stores is trading ahead of plan and this gives us confidence to start planning for further sites.

"The search has commenced and we are confident that the lessons learned over the last 18 months of new store openings will provide an excellent foundation for our future expansion plans."