UK's Brown & Jackson like-for-like sales rise 3.9%
(Adds more detail, background)

By Dan Lalor

LONDON, July 28 (Reuters) - British discount retailer Brown & Jackson Plc's sales are growing ahead of target as its new Instore brand beats expectations, the company said on Wednesday.

Like-for-like sales rose 3.9 percent year on year in the 14 weeks to July 24, with total group sales up 2.5 percent. "Margins in the same period are ahead of last year and stock levels have reduced since the year end," chairman Christo Wiese also said in a statement.

At 1125 GMT, Brown & Jackson (LSE: BRJK.L - news) shares were up 6.7 percent at 64 pence to value the firm at 149 million pounds ($271 million).

House broker Numis Securities analyst Iain McDonald said it was an excellent performance "given that the retail sector as a whole does not appear to have had the best of summers".

But McDonald, who rates Brown & Jackson shares a "buy" with a 90 pence target, said he would not be changing his forecasts given that it was early in the company's financial year, which runs to the end of February.

Wiese said 31 Poundstretcher stores have been converted to 'Instore' in its current financial year, making a total of 38 stores trading under the brand. There are 291 Poundstretchers.

"Sales in these (Instore) stores are ahead of expectations, and we continue to be positive about prospects for the continuing conversion of Poundstretcher to Instore," Wiese said.

On April 22, Brown & Jackson launched a 25.4 million-pound rights issue to fund the conversion of Poundstretcher stores, whose downmarket image was deterring shoppers, into more modern Instores over the next three to four years.

Key categories for the retailer include homeware, which makes up around 40 percent of total sales, children's clothing and seasonal products, particularly those relating to gardening in the spring and summer months.

Sounds a a good prospect from this article.

Can't say I had thought much about them till a couple, of months ago, when I read somewhere that they were a buy.

The price has gone up since then, so that was a good recommendation.

I have no other thoughts other than this a is a typical Dave Dazzler type share.

The price at the moment is below resistance, (just), so there is some scope, plus the general performance is bullish.

Not one I would choose, but only for my own reasons.

WLW still dropping bit by bit, if it follows the usual pattern, by the end of this month we will be buying back in at 41p or below.

seawall,you no where i am coming from, a recent buy 0.60 pence.i have a feeling an i hear good things about there instore {new format a posh poundy if there is such a thing}. its going very well.

as for wlw,i am keeping my eyes open ,i would like to buy again 41,ish but i will have to sell some before i buy {lack of funds}.

keep your eye on brown & jackson.

seawall,are you in this game that golddog is running.if not go in as a one man team and take the rest on.dave

I will have a look

!!!!!get in there ,,,but you wont beat the gg boys.

seawall,bought some more brjk today 57 happy with that,was going with wlw or brjk,the later offering the better upside.off for some rr back on friday be lucky dave.

allright sw. plenty of intrest of late ,not surprized,seeme october is a big month,,,,,,come on angus .

This one looks good to me.

You are up on your original investment, and the last trading statement said they were trading better than expected.

Nice one so far dave.

What about BFP?

you tell me , myself , the people who are in charge must go,,you need a retail man in the job,not a plummer. big volume early on but the price never fell , still a holder myself not thinking of selling and getting out yet.

problem with this , is the large spread , its a bugger.

going well today.

a nice little move on friday seawall,more to come here. my sell if it moves to low 70s soon. dd

DD

Are yo Spreadbetting or CFD on this one? Hope you don't mind me asking but I wanted to go Long on Friday, but Finspreads don't have a listing.

Rgerads

PTH

pt ,,block cash deals for paper , strictly certificate`s for me. {old school} nothing wrong with that does me fine , cheers dave.

a nice start to the day ,,lets just see whats instore ??????????

Anyone else bored rigid by the lack of action on this stock? The shareprice has risen only once in the past 3 weeks! I can almost feel myself falling into a coma!

Interesting to read Numis have a buy note on BRJK with a price target of 90p.

What makes me laugh, these brokers never give a timescale. The buy note was end of July @ 59p, despite dropping sharply thereafter, two months later the price is back to 59p.

So then, this 90p target, they talking about 3 months? 6 months? 1 year?

I mean, we can all make up our own dubious price targets, that's easy, here's mine, 3.

wunderbar i am hopeful you have to be at this price,roll on october and we will see ,happy to hold 4 now.

result,roll on the 15th.

well the big day is almost here just over 30.000 shares on an average price of 58.5 pence , what will friday bring !!

result this can only bring confidence to the holders & a correction in the share price,get in there angus.