Final Results
Financial Highlights
System sales1 increased by 16.0% to 406.9m (2008: 350.8m)
Profit before tax2 increased by 27.8% to 29.9m (2008: 23.4m), statutory profit before tax was 41.0m (2008: 22.1m)
Like-for-like sales3 in 501 mature stores up by 8.4% (2008: 10.0% in 450 stores)
Earnings per share2:
o Basic earnings per share up 27.2% to 13.81p (2008: 10.86p)
o Diluted earnings per share up 26.0% to 13.49p (2008: 10.71p)
Total dividend increased by 31.4% to 7.75p per share (2008: 5.90p)
55 new stores opened in the year (2008: 52 stores) and none closed (2008: nil) resulting in a total of 608 stores at the year end (2008: 553)
Online sales increased by 40.4% (2008: 73.7%) to 78.5m (2008: 55.9m)
Adjusted net debt⁴ to EBITDA of 0.5:1 (2008: 0.3:1), highlighting our low financial lev