N Brown Group, and its principal subsidiary, JD Williams and Company Ltd, is a leading internet and catalogue home shopping company, with over 140 years of experience in the distance shopping market. Our extensive ranges of value products, principally clothing, footwear, household and electrical goods, are carefully targeted at the right customers and are provided through whichever channels to market our customers demand. In addition we provide financial services to our customer base, including flexible credit plans.

http://www.nbrown.co.uk/

Looks good - hopefully that gap is firmly closed.

Yep moving up nicely today. Need end of day confirmation but ive jumped in and bought it.

Q4 trading update


Financial highlights:

· Q4 sales +3.6%* as trading momentum recovers well from a challenging Autumn season

· Full year sales flat year-on-year, with Financial Services revenue representing a headwind, driven by measures to further improve the quality of our debtor book

· Full year percentage gross margin in line with expectations. Within this, product gross margin was impacted by both tactical and strategic price investments in Q4

· Full year 14/15 continuing PBT now expected to be slightly below the range previously guided to, and current market consensus of £88m



Strategic highlights:

· Further acceleration in online sales penetration - 62% in Q4, up from 59% last year

· Power brands JD Williams, Simply Be and Jacamo performing strongly, with active customer file growth of 5%

· Q4 product volume growth +11% driven by further product improvements and price investment - the first time product volumes have seen double-digit increases for many years

· Lowest level of customer debt arrears on record as we continue to successfully focus on the quality of our debtor book

Company News

N Brown issues 'slight' profit warning after tactical investing in price and product

Wed, 11 March 2015


N Brown has warned of a lower-than-expected product gross margin percentage for the full year, the retailer's second profit warning in six months.
The FTSE 250-listed company cited substantial price investments in the fourth quarter as the reason for this decline.

Fourth quarter revenue was also impacted by the company's transition from financial services to product sales, so came in flat year-on-year, despite fourth-quarter sales growth improving to 3.6%, including 11% volume growth.

Chief executive Angela Spindler was encouraged by the momentum seen during the fourth quarter in terms of trading and strategic progress and said the company had taken "the right decisions now" and sacrificed short-term profit in order to build a "better business".

Continued product improvements was accompanied by further investments in cutting prices, which proved successful in terms of product volumes returning to double-digit positive growth for the first time in many years.

"We have also accelerated our strategic transformation programme and commenced a major extension of our warehouse to support our future growth. The transformation we are driving is fundamental and necessary for future long-term sustainable growth," she said.

"Whilst we are disappointed by the slower than anticipated progress from a profit perspective, this is because we are taking the right decisions now - in some areas earlier than anticipated by our previous profit guidance - in order to build a better business for an online world."

House broker Shore Capital explained in their words that the profit shortfall reflected 'tactical' product gross margin reduction to drive stock clearance activity, which has left the group with a clean year stock position, while further product gross margin was invested in more 'strategic' initiatives, the success of which will see a follow-through into future years at the expense of further gross margin.

FULL YEAR RESULTS
RNS
RNS Number : 6190L
Brown (N.) Group PLC
29 April 2015



29 April 2015

N Brown Group Plc



FULL YEAR RESULTS FOR THE 52 WEEKS ENDED 28 FEBRUARY 2015



STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION PROGRESSING WELL;

CONFIDENCE IN THE FUTURE



Full year results from continuing operations:



· Total group revenue flat at £818.0m (FY14: £818.9m)

· Operating profit excluding exceptionals -11.9% to £93.8m (FY14: £106.5m)

· Statutory operating profit £81.2m (FY14: £106.5m)

· Profit before tax (excluding exceptionals and FX movement) -13.4% to £86.2m (FY14: £99.6m)

· Statutory Profit before tax -21.2% to £76.3m (FY14: £96.8m)

· Adjusted earnings per share from continuing operations 20.49p (FY14: 27.74p)

· Statutory earnings per share from continuing operations 21.23p (FY14: 26.95p)

· Final dividend flat year on year at 8.56p, taking full year dividend to 14.23p, also unchanged on last year

· Net debt £246.6m (FY14: £213.7m)

· Guidance for FY15/16 unchanged



Operational highlights:



· Period of significant modernisation of business, adopting a digital-first mindset

· Change programme and weak Autumn trading impacted profit performance

· Encouraging progress on some key forward indicators

o Online sales 59% in FY15 and 62% in Q4

o High level of customer satisfaction

o Active customer base +2.4%

o JD Williams relaunch on track, with double-digit increase in new customer orders



Angela Spindler, Chief Executive, said:



"This last year was an important one for our company. We are comprehensively modernising the business in terms of organisation, capability, infrastructure and processes to adopt a digital-first mindset and to ensure that we are fit for the future of retail. We are improving our product proposition and competitive position by investing in quality and price. We have also re-phased our seasonal product and marketing to better reflect consumer spending patterns and to bring the business into line with a modern clothing retail model.



"Step-changing the way the business operates and goes to market in some key areas proved more disruptive than anticipated and this, combined with a weak Autumn trading period across the sector, led to a profit performance below expectations. We are, however, improving the sustainability of future profit growth and look to the year ahead with confidence."



Andrew Higginson, Chairman, said:



"The scale and pace of change required to modernise the business put a great deal of strain on our performance in a difficult year for the clothing sector. The fall in profits was nevertheless a disappointment. However, we laid important foundations for profit recovery and long-term growth. We have now bedded in many of these changes and this year will see us push on with executing our strategy.



"The Board remains confident in the outlook for the business, and we believe that we have the right strategy in place to drive sustainable profitable growth. I would like to thank all stakeholders in the business, and in particular the staff, for all of their hard work, passion and dedication throughout the year."





Meeting for analysts and investors:



Management is hosting a presentation for analysts and investors at 10.30am. Please contact nbrown@newgatecomms.com for further information. A live webcast of the presentation will be available at: www.nbrown.co.uk . A presentation will be made available on the website at 10.30am.

Q1 Trading statement

Pity their AGM is in Manchester, - something to consider if yr a busy London-centric investor. . . . . . . sp today is 338p
EDIT ( 11Oct2016) - +10% today, now 200p - this has been a BAD investment.

Half Yearly Report
RNS
RNS Number : 1685C
Brown (N.) Group PLC
14 October 2015

14 October 2015

N BROWN GROUP PLC



HALF YEAR RESULTS FOR THE 26 WEEKS ENDED 29 AUGUST 2015



RESULTS IN LINE WITH EXPECTATIONS;

TRANSFORMATION STRATEGY ON TRACK



N Brown Group Plc, the leading multi-channel, specialist fit fashion retailer today announces results for the half year to 29 August 2015.



Financial highlights:

· Total group revenue +4.2% to £415.8m (H1 FY15: £399.2m)

· Product revenue +6.1% and Financial Services revenue -0.4%

· Operating profit excluding exceptionals -14.2% to £38.8m (H1 FY15: £45.2m)

· Underlying trading profit* before tax -15.9% yoy to £35.0m (H1 FY15: £41.6m), in line with expectations

· Statutory profit before tax -54.6% to £19.4m (H1 FY15: £42.7m), reflecting exceptional costs accrued over the half largely relating to clearance store closures

· Adjusted earnings per share from continuing operations 5.74p (H1 FY15: 11.56p)

· Statutory earnings per share from continuing operations 5.53p (H1 FY15: 11.88p)

· Half year dividend maintained at 5.67p

· Net debt £239.8m (H1 FY15: £205.2m)

· Enhanced disclosure provided today and going forward



*Underlying trading profit before tax is defined as PBT excluding exceptionals and unrealised FX movement



Operational highlights:

· Continued shift from direct mail-led to digital-first, with online penetration of 63%, up 5ppts yoy. Online penetration of new customers up 7ppts to 69%.

· Active customers +2.8% overall; within this Power Brands active customers +8.2%, driven by marketing recruitment and improved brand awareness.

· Further improvements to product quality and fashion credentials.

· JD Williams turnaround on track, with new customers up 21%. Online performance particularly encouraging, with penetration over 50% for the first time, up 8ppts yoy.

· Strong performance from Simply Be and Jacamo, with product revenue for both up 21%.

· Simply Be and Jacamo stores performed well, with LFL +6% and profitability of LFL stores +12%

· Full estate store review completed, with operational improvements made to Simply Be and Jacamo store estate and 18 clearance stores closed.

· Good USA result, with revenue +35% and operating loss significantly reduced.

· Financial Services performance in line with expectations, with continued improvements in the quality of the credit book, and FCA application submitted.

· Fit 4 the Future systems transformation project on track.

21 Oct Jefferies... 430.00 Buy

Nice bounce on this today, up nearly 20% at moment, dividend maintained (>8%) and profit down less than expected. Hopefully now bottomed out, one of my less successful shares and now a long term investment, just another 30% for me to break even, ignoring the dividends received.

Citigroup comment:
"Consensus PBT likely to remain unchanged — On the back of this statement we do not expect FY17E consensus PBT to change significantly. We have a FY17E PBT forecast £79.3m (EPS 22.7p, -9.3% yoy), this assumes FY total sales of +1.9%. We assume FY gross margins -70bp with opex growth of +3%. This drives forecast EBIT growth of -8.9% yoy. Our FY17E PBT forecast of £79.3m (-10.2% yoy.

Neutral rating, TP 180p

We value N Brown on c. 9. 5x EV/EBIT for Feb 2018E in line with its recent average, this equates to c9x PE and a 6% dividend yield in the same forecast year."

Dropped to 160p a while back, but good news ( can't get worse!) and MoS +Broker "Buys" appear to have shifted this to 260p - maybe if the excitement fades and Sales remain level it may be worth topping up; to AvDn ( always risky ).
EDIT(30May2018)-sp £2 DYOR but looking at the graph from 2014 it's been staggering downwards from over £5 . . . despite being a Long-Term "Distance Seller" ( the JD Williams arm)... so the "INTERNET" is hardly any change at all..... yet the Clothing+Household buying Public appear to be going elsewhere.... Management - that's it...like M&S unwilling to see it's THEIR fault!
EDIT(11Oct2018)-Dividend halved ( now ~5% yield), sp lost 20%, now £1.11 - that's a mighty (again) fall!