Sales at meat retailer Crawshaw improve

The Rotherham-based company said in a trading update today that year to date like-for-like sales are now running at 4 per cent higher than last year.

At today’s annual general meeting, chairman, Richard Rose, is expected to say that sales in May were particularly encouraging, with like-for-like sales at its long-established stores being 6 per cent higher than the same period last year, while at its newer stores they were 12 per cent higher.

Mr Rose said in a statement released today: “Overall LFLs (like-for-like sales) in June are running in line with trend at 4 per cent higher than last year, despite the recent lack of BBQ sales opportunities, as compared to the previous year.

“In addition to the above, year to date margins are now slightly above last year, with the recent margin performance being particularly encouraging. Therefore, as a result of the above, we are delighted to report that, for the first 20 weeks of the current year, we are trading ahead of management’s expectations.”

Mr Rose said that amendments to the Government’s proposals to add VAT to certain currently exempt cooked products, otherwise known as the “pasty tax”, had helped in so far as the firm would be able to sell such items “on the cool” VAT free.

But he added: “This does however create in itself some anomalies, particularly affecting our small format stores. We have therefore made further representations to the Treasury, both in writing and in person, and are hopeful that workable solutions can be found.”