Trading Update
Christmas Trading update
Crawshaw Group plc ("Crawshaw" or the "Company"), the meat focussed retailer, provides the following update on current trading.
Trading for the 9 weeks to 28th December was in line with management expectations. Like for like sales for the period were down 3%, but the Company had budgeted for this small decrease given that sales for the comparable period last year were particularly strong, rising by 21%. Gross margin in the period has showed a further improvement of 1% over the prior year and therefore the Company's cash margin has increased year on year.
Year to date like for like sales are up 6%.
We anticipate that the Company's full year profit and cash generation will be in line with expectations.
Richard Rose, Chairman, commented: "Our customers continue to appreciate our quality and value and so customer satisfaction remains high. Our new factory shop has got off to a great start and is trading above expectation giving us much confidence as we plan our accelerated store opening program.
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