Crawshaw suffers 'disappointing' sales as high street takes toll

Rotherham-based butcher Crawshaw Group reported a "disappointing" year of sales on Wednesday as high street sales were impacted by consumer headwinds and inflationary pressures.

The AIM-traded company saw revenues rise 1% in the 12 months leading up to 28 January compared to the previous year, to £44.6m, but cost of sales also grew by 3% to £25.8m, which in turn caused gross profit to drop by 3% to £18.7m.

Furthermore, Crawshaw reported a statutory loss of £13.5m, wider than the £1.4m loss from the previous year, as the company was subject to a one-off non-cash impairment charge of £10.6m and £800,000 in exceptional costs.

Noel Collett, chief executive of Crawshaw, said: "This has been a disappointing year for group sales. Whilst we have been pleased with the strong performance of our factory shop outlets, sales across our high street estate have proven more challenging, exacerbated by the well documented high street pressures. Against this, however, we have made operational progress to strengthen the business."

Factory shops account for 20% of revenue and the company opened five through the year, taking the total number to ten.

Meanwhile, in response to the company’s struggles on the high street, where like for like sales saw a 5.4% reduction, two unprofitable high street outlets were shut down.

As of 28 January, the company had no debt and cash on hand at £4.7m.

Chairman Jim McCarthy said: "I am confident that the repositioning of the group towards our successful factory shop model will improve long-term profitability. I expect to provide an update on a new management team in due course, who I am confident will help further develop Crawshaws' market leading value and drive improved performance in both factory shops and high street stores."

As of 0927 BST, Crawshaw shares were up 10.99% to 5.05p.