ScS hails good performance from core business

Home furnishings retailer ScS hailed a good performance from its core business on Wednesday ahead of its annual general meeting.

In the 16 weeks to 17 November, the core ScS business saw like-for-like order intake growth of 3.5%, while two-year LFL order intake grew 7.1%.

During the period, the House of Fraser concessions - from which it will cease trading by the end of January next year - accounted for just 2.9% of the group's order intake, and saw a 53.4% drop in LFL orders.

ScS said a strong core performance offset declining orders in the HoF concessions, resulting in the group as a whole trading in line with the prior year.

"Whilst it is still early in the current financial year, the group continues to trade in line with the board's expectations. We believe the group's increasing resilience and value proposition will enable us to manage the continued economic uncertainty and take advantage of opportunities," the company said.

Shore Capital, for which ScS is a house stock, said: "Management state the group is trading in line its expectations, so we leave our full year forecasts unchanged at this stage.

"We continue to look for adjusted profit before tax of £13.3m (EPS: 25.8p). ScS has a strong value proposition, resilient operating model and robust balance sheet with net cash (FY2019F: £38.1m) that we believe should enable it to deliver a further year of progress in FY2019F. This is not reflected in the group’s valuation, in our view."

At 0950 GMT, the shares were up 0.7% to 225.64p.