Who are we?

Our operating company, Crawshaw Butchers, currently has 20 retail outlets and two distribution centres across Yorkshire, Humberside, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire.

In line with our growth strategy we have now successfully launched eight new shops in Retford, Castleford, Chesterfield, Mansfield, Huddersfield, Doncaster, Bramley and more recently, Derby.

Company Website

Latest Announcements

Recent Broker notes

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Recent Market news

Crawshaws Fundamentals (CRAW)

KEEP an EYE

34.50p ( 34 v 35 )

look like the bottom has been reached and buyers are back again, improving Level 2 also as the bid is being now supported by 2 MMs

Paying higher price all the time as offer is 35p, at this rate it will go higher soon

34.49p
34.57p
34.67p
34.73p
34.75p
34.83p

finally the bid went up earlier and now the offer, now looks more a bounce on the go
new price 34.50 v 35.50p

Everything is turning up on the chart

Everything on the right place now as the larger buys are showing on the ticker 50K
spread 35.50 v 37p

3:29:29
36.40p
50,000
£18.20k

Disappointed though I am with recent developments I have increased my steak, er stake for no particular reason! :o)

I nearly split my sides laughing Kim !!

Yes I've 'beefed up' my holding also.

Be careful you could both get fried here

Was I the first to buy cheap BEEF this morning?

Lets hope is not.....

Do I see buying is going on now?
Was marked down after a few small sells total 14K and 2 MMs were the guilty ones at the same tame with offer at 36p,
but small buying is going on and paying higher price all the time.

It's not bringing home the bacon for jimmy to fry yet! :o)

The early bird bought 10K @ 35p and took SING out of the offer

at the same time PEEL has gone into the bid 35p

Half-year Report

Interim Results
Crawshaw Group Plc ("Crawshaw", the "Company" or the "Group"), the fresh meat and food-to-go retailer, announces results for the 26 weeks ended 31 July 2016.

Financial Highlights
· 29% increase in group turnover to £21.6m (2015: £16.7m)
· 31% increase in gross profit to £9.8m (2015: £7.5m)
· Like-for-like sales -4.4% (2015: +1.0%)
· Adjusted EBITDA1 £1.1m (2015: £1.2m)
· EBITDA2 £0.3m (2015: £0.5m)
· Loss Before tax of -£0.4m (2015: -£0.1m)
· Cash of £4.0m at 31 July 2016 (31 July 2015: £6.0m)
· £4m, 5 year revolving credit facility ("RCF") secured
· No interim dividend proposed (2015: 0.10 pence per share)

1. Adjusted EBITDA is defined by the Group as profit/loss before tax, exceptional items, depreciation, amortisation, Profit/(loss) on disposal of assets, net finance costs, "Accelerated opening costs" and share based payment charges attributable to the LTIP Growth Share scheme. Accelerated opening costs are defined by the Group as the investments in people, processes and systems in the year to provide direct support for our accelerated store opening program - in the period these costs amounted to £0.7m (2015: £0.7m) resulting in Adjusted EBITDA of £1.1m (2015: £1.2m).
2. EBITDA is defined by the Group as profit/loss before tax, exceptional items, amortization, profit/(loss) on disposal of assets, net finance costs and share based payment charges attributable to the LTIP Growth Share Scheme.

Strategy Highlights
· Sales growth restoration plans in place across the store estate
· Investment in the core business infrastructure now complete
· Capex in the central production capability complete for future growth
· 9 new stores opened in the period ended 31 July 2016
· 1 new store opened in H2 bringing total to 49 trading stores as at 29 September 2016
· New standalone factory outlet store performing significantly above expectations

Chief Executive Officer, Noel Collett, comments;
"We have made considerable progress with our store expansion program over the last 18 months but are very disappointed by the recent like-for-like sales performance as some of the price and range initiatives didn't resonate with customers as we had expected. We are acting quickly to restore sales momentum by returning our focus to the local value-led proposition that has proved successful in the past. We have already re-introduced a locally driven, value-led promotion strategy which is bringing more customers in store, although these activities require short term margin investment and will therefore impact full year profit expectations".

Enquiries:
Crawshaw Group plc Peel Hunt LLP
Noel Collett, Alan Richardson Dan Webster, Adrian Trimmings, George Sellar
01709 369 600 020 7418 8900



Chief Executive's Report

In the 26 weeks ended 31 July 2016, total revenue for the Group increased by 29% to £21.6m (2015: £16.7m) with like-for-like sales at -4.4%. Gross profit increased by 31% to £9.8m (2015: £7.5m). EBITDA for the period was £0.3m (2015: £0.5m) with increased operating costs offsetting sales and margin growth.

Operational review:
We have largely completed phase one of the rollout programme with the delivery of nine new trading stores across the period. In order to consistently deliver the rollout of new stores at this pace, we had embarked on a period of standardisation and built a strong platform of discipline and central control. Whilst this was done to aid rapid store rollout, we had also applied facets of this approach to our legacy stores in order to drive sales and margin, changing both the price and range architecture to those adopted in the new stores.

Initial results were encouraging, with strong like-for-like sales and margin through the middle of last financial year as these initiatives were gradually rolled out. With the benefit of hindsight, it is clear that these changes didn't resonate as well with customers as we thought. Customer loyalty initially translated into additional sales through bigger, better value packs at higher price points in the first instance before giving way to waning loyalty and lower sales as we traded through H1 this year. This is evident in the shape of our -4.4% like-for-like sales performance across the half with -0.8% growth in Q1 widening to -7.8% in Q2. This trend was amplified in the first 7 weeks of our H2 performance with like-for-like sales tracking at -15.8%, which in hindsight was not wholly unexpected given the impact of the changes noted to the price and range architecture coinciding with the business trading over the strongest growth from last year (2015: +6.7%).

We have now identified the cause of this sales underperformance by spending a great deal of time in stores with our customers and colleagues. The feedback from these visits was relatively straightforward. Our customers want to see some of the old fresh meat pack sizes, price points and offers that were previously on sale in their specific store.

As a result, we have made immediate changes to give store managers flexibility to re-introduce local ranging products which has been positively received. We have also significantly increased the number and depth of price-led promotions on fresh meat with managers being given the flexibility to choose the promotions that resonate most with their customers. Within the food-to-go category, the same flexible principles have been applied and a number of store specific favourite dishes have been re-introduced to the menu and some of the prices have been rolled back - these are already leading to an increase in customer numbers and sales. Furthermore, given that the current climate has made customers more price-focussed than ever, seeking smaller packs with great value, we have launched a store trial where the fixed price points in the multibuy range are even lower to test customer reaction. We are confident that these actions will restore sales momentum and we have already seen some positive signs with customer numbers improving week to week on both fresh and food-to-go.

As noted, our store opening programme across H1 has been proceeding at pace, with nine additional stores opened in the period and a further store opening at the start of H2, taking the current estate to 49 stores. All stores have successfully opened on time and on budget. As would be expected as we have opened more stores, there is a wider spread of performance against our base case targets. We have a good number of stores that have opened well and are trading in line with our expectations, we have a number of stores which have traded ahead of expectations from opening day and equally a number of stores which are not trading as strongly as anticipated. Overall we remain encouraged by the potential opportunity of our store rollout programme. Of particular interest and significance is the performance of our standalone fresh meat factory shop in West Bromwich. Our 4 factory shops sell predominantly fresh meat (no hot food-to-go offer) and have higher sales, lower operating costs and lower fit out costs than our units on the high street and in shopping centres. Our location and format strategy has always been one of operating a diverse portfolio across high streets, shopping centres and factory shop locations, and in the current trading environment, the performance of our West Bromwich factory shop has encouraged us to plan the trial of up to 2 further factory shops this year to test the predictability of the concept and inform the shape of the rollout programme for next year.

We will maintain a disciplined approach to our growth strategy, which means it is imperative that the pace and timings of the store openings are managed correctly. Whilst we have a strong pipeline of each store format and have proven our ability to open stores in each location, we have taken the decision to open up to 12 stores this year versus the 15 previously communicated to enable us to fully appraise the factory shop opportunity and allow management to focus on restoring sales momentum. An update on the growth strategy for 2017 will be provided with the full year results announcement in April 2017.

Financial review:

Gross profit:
Margin has been well managed across the half with the 29% growth in sales being converted to a 31% increase in gross margin to £9.8m (2015: £7.5m). The margin rate improved to 45.2% (2015 44.8%) which moderated the impact of the -4.4% drop in like-for-like sales to a -1.5% fall in the margin achieved in those stores. I am pleased to report that the exchange rate impact on our input prices post BREXIT vote has been largely mitigated in the first half through our flexible sourcing and specification model.

EBITDA and profit before tax "PBT":
Group EBITDA for H1 was £0.3m (2015: £0.5m). Group sales and margin increases were offset by increased operating costs as a result of; 1) additional ongoing central costs being incurred as the business scaled up; 2) higher operating costs experienced in the new stores as they trade through their maturity curves and; 3) lower profitability in like-for-like estate as a result of lower sales.

Adjusted EBITDA at £1.1m was £0.1m lower than the prior year (2015: £1.2m). Accelerated opening costs were in line with last year at £0.7m (2015: £0.7m) as detailed in the table below. Salaries and new store pre-opening cost increased in line with the pace of new store rollout. This increase was offset by a reduction in consultancy costs which were incurred last year prior to internal capability being in place.

more....

Better than I expected!

Peel Hunt today reaffirms its buy investment rating on Crawshaw Group PLC (LON:CRAW) and set its price target at 60p.

33.50p ( 33/34p )

Good demand from the start of the day, as it seems the marked down of a couple days ago and then bounce back at the same day, is signaling the lows are being reached. Good Indicators all rising from lows and MACD moving over "0" and divergence.

Arrowgrass Capital Partners LLP > 3%

35.25p +0.50p

A very large 200K buy @ 35.50p should encourage new takes of the stock as is bouncing back

08:41:19
35.50p
200,000
£71.00k

35.75 +0.50 (+1.42%)

A very slow movement up, but considering the market has been lower during last week, is a good performance so far