ProCook reports sales rebound in key third quarter

Shares in ProCook gained on Wednesday after the kitchenware brand managed saw a sales rebound in the third quarter, its peak trading period.

Revenues increased by 3% to £23.1m in the 12 weeks to 7 January, as a 9.5% increase in retail offset a 6% decline in ecommerce sales, which were impacted by disruption from the launch of a new website at the start of the quarter.

Following a 3.8% drop in total sales in the first half, the financial year-to-date sales decline eased to just 0.8% over the first three quarters.

ProCook said it managed to outperform the UK kitchenware market by 10 percentage points in the third quarter, according to weekly GfK data and management estimates.

Like-for-like sales fell by 0.4%, though that was a big improvement on the 7.9% and 1.8% declines seen in the first and second quarters.

Looking ahead, the company said the macro environment "remains difficult" which is having an impact on consumers' bigger ticket and discretionary purchases.

"Nevertheless, the group has made good progress with improving customer experience both online and in store and enhancing value for customers through price reductions across much of our range, supported by year on year cost reductions and efficiency improvements," ProCook said.

The stock was up 2.6% at 26.67p by 0946 GMT.