Final Results
Brown (N.) Group PLC
16 May 2002
16 May 2002
N Brown Group plc
PRELIMINARY RESULTS ANNOUNCEMENT
YEAR ENDED 2 MARCH 2002
N Brown Group plc, the Manchester based direct home shopping, fulfilment and
financial services company, today announces its preliminary results for the 52
weeks to 2 March 2002.
The company has delivered another strong set of results, with the core home
shopping division demonstrating double-digit growth in both turnover and profit
before tax. The fulfilment and financial services divisions have made good
progress during the year, in line with expectations, and there will be continued
development of these key growth areas.
Highlights of the results include:
Profit before tax £58.5m (2001: £52.0m) +12.4%
Operating profit £63.8m (2001: £56.1m) +13.6%
Turnover £449.0m (2001: £393.3m) +14.2%
Earnings per share 14.50p (2001: 12.90p) +12.4%
Final dividend per share 4.10p (2001: 3.75p) + 9.3%
Total dividend per share for the year 5.75p (2001: 5.20p) +10.6%
All comparisons against last year appearing on this page are stated against the
like with like 52 week period last year.
Sir David Alliance CBE, Chairman, said:
'I am pleased with this excellent set of results. The core home shopping
division continues to perform strongly, with turnover up 12% and operating
profit up 13% over last year. We broadened our range of household and electrical
appliances and this contributed to an increase in turnover of 25% in this
product category. This now accounts for some 31% of home shopping sales, up from
24% two years ago.
'Our financial services business, First Financial, has progressed well during
the year, with operating profit up 27.5%, and now offers an expanded range of
financial products to our home shopping customer base. Zendor, our fulfilment
services company, has moved into profit this year and the planned merger of the
Zendor and Eunite businesses will provide more fully integrated fulfilment
solutions for clients and reduced overhead costs for N Brown.
'Turnover for the first ten weeks of the new financial period is 6% ahead of
last year, with a similar mix of customer and product groups as before. I
remain confident about the future of direct home shopping and our ability to
perform at the leading edge of our marketplace. I expect to see continued growth
in financial services and also believe that a newly merged fulfilment group will
begin contributing to overall profit in the second half of this year.'
-Ends-
For further information please contact:
N Brown Group plc
Sir David Alliance CBE, Chairman On the day: 0207 554 1400
Jim Martin, Chief Executive Thereafter: 0161 236 8256
Tim Kowalski, Finance Director
Gavin Anderson & Company
Neil Garnett / Charlotte Stone 020 7554 1400
Websites
www.nbrown.co.uk
www.zendor.com
www.eunite.co.uk
CHAIRMANS STATEMENT
I am delighted to report another excellent set of results, with profit before
tax up by 12.4% to £58.5m on turnover which was 14.2% higher at £449.0m.
Throughout this statement, all comparisons against last year are stated against
the like with like 52 week period last year. In the core home shopping
division, operating profit increased by 13%, with clothing and footwear sales
performing particularly well. Our decision to broaden the range of household
and electrical appliances has been fully justified by a 25% increase in turnover
in the period and this range now accounts for 31% of home shopping sales, up
from 24% two years ago. Internet sales are now running at an annualised rate of
£15m, with this year's sales of £11.7m showing a four fold increase on last
year.
I am also pleased to report that Zendor, our fulfilment services company, has
now made a small profit in the second half of the year and I look forward to
this division becoming a positive contributor to the group in future years.
Earnings per share are ahead by 12.4% at 14.50 pence. A final dividend of 4.10
pence has been recommended by the Board, which increases the total for the year
to 5.75 pence, up 10.6% on last year. Net assets have increased by 13.0% to
£220.5m and gearing has increased slightly from 40% last year to 42%.
Strategy
We continue to focus on direct home shopping, whilst deploying management skills
and resources in the complementary businesses of fulfilment and financial
services. Our strategy is to expand the range of catalogues and products we
offer and to grow our market share based on detailed research into customers'
spending habits. This ability to anticipate and react to changes in consumer
behaviour is reflected in highly targeted marketing and the increasing use of
new channels, particularly electronic shopping.
Home shopping
The increase in turnover of 12% to £435m has again exceeded retail market
performance. Operating profit is 13% ahead at £63m, with a slightly improved
operating margin against last year. Importantly, for the future of our
business, we have increased our market share in clothing and footwear whilst
the continued expansion in sales of household and electrical appliances has been
particularly gratifying. We believe there are further opportunities for
expansion in both of these key sectors.
Customers are responding well to investments made in inbound and outbound
telephone marketing and the Internet. These are rapidly becoming established
selling channels which provide further opportunities to contact those customers
we have identified, in our extensive database, as having a higher propensity to
buy. Our sophisticated contact strategy also includes the frequent use of
smaller catalogues and brochures, which allow us the flexibility to react
quickly to changing retail buying patterns.
This combination of wider product ranges, additional channels to market and
skills in identifying new catalogue propositions will help to underwrite future
growth.
Fulfilment
This division offers comprehensive end-to-end fulfilment services to companies
in the distance shopping market. After the inevitable early losses of any start
up company, Zendor moved into a small profit in the second half. Eunite, the
e-convergence company, encountered a slow-down in its market sector,
particularly in the first half, although early measures taken to address the
situation have resulted in a lower rate of loss in the second half. We plan to
merge Zendor and Eunite to provide an even more integrated solution to clients
whilst at the same time contributing to a reduction in overheads.
We have an excellent list of blue chip clients and I am pleased with the
reaction to the service they have received from Zendor in what has been their
first season working with us.
Financial services
First Financial has seen good progress over the past year. It markets a range of
financial products to customers who are carefully selected from the home
shopping database. The division, originally established as a financial
intermediary with well-known insurance companies, has recently expanded its
portfolio of services to include personal loans, where it acts as the principal
lender. We see it becoming an increasing significant contributor to group profit
in the future.
Corporate governance
We recognise the value of positive risk management and this is increasingly
being embedded into management processes throughout the organisation. The
social, ethical, environmental and health and safety responsibilities, the
policies for which are published on our web site and mentioned in our annual
report , are fully accepted across the company. This has now been formally
recognised by our admission to membership of the FTSE4Good Index.
Prospects
Turnover for the first ten weeks of the new financial period is 6% ahead of last
year, with a similar mix of customer and product groups as before. I remain
confident about the future of direct home shopping and our ability to perform at
the leading edge of our marketplace. I expect to see continued growth in
financial services and also believe that a newly merged fulfilment group will
begin contributing to overall profit in the second half of this year.
Management and staff
Jim Martin, who has been with the group for 29 years and Chief Executive for the
last 18 years, will be standing down later this year at the age of 60 to take up
the new position of Deputy Chairman. It is a fitting tribute for me to record
that, under his leadership, group profit before tax has enjoyed a dramatic
increase from £3.6m to £58.5m, equivalent to an annual compound growth rate of
17%. I am sure you will join me in congratulating and thanking him for his
outstanding achievement and contribution.
I am delighted that we have been able to appoint Alan White to succeed Jim as
Chief Executive. Alan was a key member of our team as Finance Director for 14
years up to 1999, when he joined Littlewoods plc as Group Finance Director. The
continuity of management provided by Alan, supported by Jim and an outstanding
management team, provides shareholders with an excellent succession plan.
Lord Stone of Blackheath recently accepted our invitation to become a
non-executive director. Until 1999 he was a Managing Director and, prior to
that, Merchandise Director, with Marks & Spencer plc. We look forward to
benefiting from his extensive retail knowledge and skills.
Lawrence Ziman, who has been the senior non-executive director of the board
since 1994 and is currently chairman of the Audit Committee, has decided to
retire at the forthcoming AGM in July 2002. We are grateful to Lawrence for his
valued contribution and achievements on our behalf during this period, notably
for his close involvement in the group's implementation of corporate governance
principles and policies.
On behalf of shareholders, I would also like to thank our staff and management
for their contribution to another outstanding set of results.
Sir David Alliance CBE
16 May 2002
CHIEF EXECUTIVE'S REVIEW
Our emphasis this year has been to increase average customer spending from a
wider range of products and to grow the size of our customer database. In
addition, our complementary fulfilment and financial services divisions were
repositioned to take full advantage of their potential.
I believe the management team has delivered these strategies and I am delighted
to report that turnover for the year is up by 14.2% to £449.0m and profit before
tax is up by 12.4% to £58.5m. These and all other comparisons in this review
are made against a like with like 52 week period last year.
HOME SHOPPING
Financials
Operating profit increased by 13% to £63.2m, representing a margin of 14.5%,
slightly ahead of last year. The gross margin is, as expected, 0.3% below last
year at 56.1%, with most of this reduction due to the growing proportion of
sales of lower margin household and electrical products. Selling and
administration costs as a percentage of turnover are 0.3% down on last year and
there is a useful but smaller relative reduction in the costs of distribution.
Market and competition
Against our turnover increase of 12% there has been little or no sales growth in
the overall home shopping market this year, where there is a continuing shift
from traditional agency catalogues towards the direct approach used by N Brown.
We are confident that there is scope to further increase our share of the £10bn
home shopping market.
At the same time we are mindful of two key emerging factors on the High Street,
the resurgence of some familiar household names and the growth of the value
retailing sector. Whilst our catalogues have always been rated well by our
customers in terms of offering good value for money, we will continue to drive
down operating costs and search out new and better value sources to enable us to
maintain our competitive edge. As far as our target audience is concerned, all
trends point to an ageing and larger sized population with more people coming
into the 40 plus age bracket.
We believe that a portfolio of brands primarily aimed at women aged 40 to 65,
who are looking for clothing in sizes 16 and above, will become even more
relevant in the coming years. Clothing and footwear will continue to be the
main product groups we use when recruiting a new customer, although there is a
wider range of affinity products and services which can be offered as the
relationship develops.
Brands
The broadening and balancing of our portfolio of brands continues at pace.
The largest group of catalogues serves customers aged between 45 and 65 years
and turnover in this category has increased by 8% to £292m, now representing 67%
of total home shopping sales. These catalogues are well positioned to take
advantage of the growing numbers and affluence of those in this age group.
Within this wide age range, however, there are quite different types of
consumers who, if we are to meet their expectations, need to receive catalogues
with propositions that have been tailored to their particular requirements.
Customers aged around 50 have quite different needs and aspirations to those who
are ten years older. Whilst protecting this core traditional market served by
catalogues such as Ambrose Wilson, J D Williams and Oxendales, we have developed
and invested in offers to slightly younger customers with the launch of a new
catalogue this season known as Simply Yours.
We have continued to increase our marketing investment in the younger sector of
the market of customers between 30 and 45 years of age, and have had another
strong year with turnover up by 24% to £95m, representing 22% of total home
shopping turnover. This sector is served by Simply Be, a specialist brand
offering larger fashion for outgoing women aged between 35 and 45 years and
which has gone from strength to strength with sales up by 81% to £15m. In
addition, Fashion World, again offering larger fashion for customers in their
forties but serving a more conservative customer, has grown by 18% in the year
to £53m. We are re-positioning Classic Confidence, originally launched in 1995
on the back of some ground breaking research to better understand the size and
shape of larger women.
We also have a group of catalogues which address the needs of our more elderly
customers, many of whom are in retirement. The principal catalogue is Special
Collection, featuring mainly womenswear, menswear and footwear. Total sales to
this group of customers increased by 6% to £27m.
Further work is being undertaken to refine our brands and, whilst the core
clothing offer will remain clearly focused on size, differentiation will also be
seen and experienced in service, range selection and communication. We have
identified that there are still further specific groups of customers which we
can serve differently and in a better way than our competitors and we expect new
catalogues to be launched in the coming year.
Product categories
Without in any way diluting the important position we occupy in clothing and
footwear, it was recognised three years ago that expanding our ranges of
household and electrical products presented an opportunity to increase the level
of customers' spending. This strategy has continued to work well during this
year and we are confident that it can be developed further.
The largest product category is womenswear which has increased sales by 7% to
£232m, representing 53% of home shopping turnover. This growth is broadly
spread across all womenswear products, although dresses and coats have had a
particularly good year. Menswear sales comprise 8% of total turnover and
increased by 9% to £36m. Footwear turnover rose by 6% to £35m.
Turnover of household and electrical products rose to £132m, up by an impressive
25% on last year, a similar rate of growth to the previous year. The share that
this category represents of home shopping turnover has increased from 24% to 31%
over the last two years. The most significant range within this area is
household textiles, with the fastest growing being electrical products. Whilst
gross margins here are generally lower than in clothing, there are compensating
benefits in lower returns rates, coupled with reduced process and stockholding
costs.
Channels to market
Contact with our customers is primarily made through the following key channels;
- bi-annual catalogues, monthly statement inserts, TV/press advertisements,
Internet, call centre and door to door.
- Catalogues
Bi-annual catalogue sales still account for just under 50% of total turnover
and, as such, timing, content, quality and cost are critical in this high volume
production process. Our in-house design and print buying teams have introduced
new processes and buying arrangements, delivering savings in both costs and
lead-time to market. We expect to benefit further from these initiatives in the
coming year. Sending catalogues to customers more frequently than twice a year
is a growing feature of this channel, using techniques that allow for changes in
pagination and selling prices to reflect seasonal and retail phases. The volume
and frequency of catalogues can be changed at relatively short notice to respond
to market conditions, customer preferences and stockholding levels.
- Statements
The monthly statement programme provides an ideal opportunity to supplement the
catalogue with regular and more targeted publications. Using sophisticated
modelling techniques linked to customer buying patterns, we are able to present
suitable offers throughout the season, as well as tailoring promotions to the
customer's financial position.
The flexible yet targeted nature of this activity will not replace the catalogue
but it allows the business to quickly adapt ranges and prices in line with
competition, season, stock and customer needs.
- TV/press
National TV and press advertising provide the vehicle for most of our customer
recruitment. In what is becoming a very competitive and crowded environment, we
continue to look for innovative ways to recruit new customers, whilst focusing
on customer life-time value models and return on marketing investment.
- The Internet
With a fully integrated transactional website for each of our brands, we are
very encouraged at the level of Internet sales in what has been a relatively
short period since the launch of the sites.
Accounting for 3% of overall sales and up to 13% with some of our younger
customers, the Internet is proving a valuable asset and has delivered turnover
of £11.7m last year against £2.7m from its first year of operation. In general
we find customers who use the web spend about 24% more per transaction than the
average customer and we estimate that around 25% of Internet sales are
incremental.
To maintain progress with this channel, we have recently upgraded our websites
based on customer feedback studies and we expect continued growth on the back of
improvements in connection speed, ease of navigation and product presentation.
- Call centre
Almost 80% of all orders are received by telephone and consequently our call
centre operation is critical in terms of both sales and service. We will soon be
moving to a major new call centre in Manchester which will provide capacity for
up to 1,000 advisors and will enable us to handle more calls in-house in a cost
effective manner. Using state of the art equipment, we are looking forward to
providing our customers with enhanced levels of service which should generate
better sales performance and productivity. All of our customer facing staff are
going through new training and development programmes which will not only lead
to greater technical competence, but will also focus on the key areas of tone of
voice, customer empathy and first time problem resolution.
New technology will also allow us to further develop the success we have
experienced in order building. This is our ability to sell related products to
customers at the same time they place their original order. This activity last
year delivered turnover of £12m, up by 21% on the previous year. At the same
time, outbound telemarketing, which promotes product sales, insurance and
warranty sales and handles debt management calls, has increased turnover to
£15m, up by 45%.
With all of this technology, data and capability, it is important that we are
mindful of our customers' reactions and whilst most are happy with
telemarketing, we are quick to recognise that there are those who are not and we
ensure their wishes are respected.
- Door to door
House of Stirling has a network of sales staff who sell to customers in their
own homes, using catalogues featuring an extensive collection of products drawn
from core home shopping ranges. Customers generally take advantage of the
convenience of weekly collected payments, preferring this method to buying from
traditional mail order companies.
The management team has been strengthened across the network and the number of
sales people has increased by 29% to 290. Together with an improvement in
productivity levels, these factors have contributed to an increase in turnover
of 41% to £15m, a reduction in bad debt levels and an encouraging increase in
operating profit.
Customer management
Recruiting and retaining customers is a key success factor for any distance
shopping business. As recruitment media becomes more crowded and expensive and
customers have more choice, it is essential we continue to focus our efforts and
resources on promoting products to our existing customer base. Last year we
grew our active established accounts base by 3% to 2.2m, with a corresponding
increase of 8% in average spending.
Credit
The growing range of products and different customer profiles demand more choice
in our credit terms, to compete with offers normally available for these types
of products in the High Street.
New initiatives such as interest free credit to selected customers on more
expensive electricals and fixed credit terms have all helped to increase the
average debtor balance at the end of the year by 15% to £171 on the 1.6m
customers operating a credit account.
Working closely with First Financial, our in-house financial services arm, we
plan to further increase the range of credit offers made to customers in the
future, including personal loans.
Prices
There was evidence of High Street womenswear prices firming up towards the end
of the year and this was reflected in our business, with an increase of 1% in
the second half. Prices of household textiles and electrical products were up
by 13%, although this was due to more higher priced items being included in the
range.
The recent increases in clothing prices are due more to favourable currency
movements than any relief from the longer term decline in world sourcing prices.
FULFILMENT
This division comprises, Zendor, the fulfilment solutions company, and Eunite, a
leading provider of multi channel e-commerce services. Both companies have
experienced a much improved second half with Zendor making an operating profit
of £0.3m, taking the full year into a small profit of £0.1m. Eunite was
affected by the downturn in e-commerce activities and made an operating loss in
the first half of £0.9m, but this was reduced to £0.6m in the second half of the
year.
We plan to merge Zendor and Eunite, enabling the combined business to provide
totally integrated fulfilment solutions to clients whilst making savings in
overheads for the group. Zendor continues to benefit from the support of its
minority shareholder GE Capital, particularly in the areas of consumer credit
and account management.
Clients, who include Early Learning Centre, Hays Group, New Look, River Island
and Toys R Us, are pleased with the service that their customers received from
Zendor in the notoriously difficult Christmas period. In addition, consultancy
services have been provided to Safeway and Arcadia. The total retail value of
sales which Zendor will fulfil for its clients has been forecast by those
clients to be £45m in their first year of operation. As Zendor contracts
normally extend over a three to five year term, this equates to a total retail
sales value of approximately £180m over the life of the relationship.
Zendor has now worked with twelve third-party business clients from various
sectors and is well placed to take advantage of its internal and external
fulfilment skills.
Going forward, we see Zendor becoming more independent, using a blend of the
group's excess home shopping capacity and logistics services provided by
external partners.
FINANCIAL SERVICES
Established in 1998, First Financial is near to fully completing its transition
from a low cost brokerage business into a profitable growth division with a
broad range of financial products. These currently include life insurance,
warranties, affinity credit cards and personal loans.
In addition to developing products which are sold direct to the home shopping
customer base, First Financial will provide a new range of flexible credit
offers for the core home shopping business in new product categories such as
higher priced electrical items and furniture.
Using internal data modelling techniques already utilised in home shopping, our
financial services division is enjoying strong take-up rates through both
traditional direct mail campaigns and, more recently, outbound telemarketing.
Moving to the new call centre will add capacity to this function and further
systems investment will improve targeting and processing capability.
Operating profit is £2.1m, up 27.5% on last year. This has been achieved after
absorbing the inevitable start-up costs of the new unsecured lending division.
The level of bad debts is in line with expectations.
GOING FORWARD
There is considerable strength in our core home shopping business, which
operates with an excellent portfolio of catalogues sent direct to clearly
defined groups of customers, many of whom are part of the growing and more
affluent middle aged population. The fulfilment and financial services
divisions, which have been created by leveraging some of our core strengths, are
also part of our exciting future.
Later this year I will become Deputy Chairman when Alan White arrives to take up
the position of Chief Executive. I am confident that he will lead the team to
even greater achievements in the future and wish him every success.
I have been fortunate to work with some outstanding people in the past eighteen
years and I would like to thank the teams, both past and present, for their
support and contribution to the results we have achieved together over that
time.
Jim Martin
16 May 2002
GROUP PROFIT AND LOSS ACCOUNT for the 52 weeks ended 2 March 2002
52 weeks 53 weeks %
ended ended Increase
2 March 3 March
2002 2001
Note £'000 £'000
Turnover 1 449,002 400,492 12.1%
Operating profit 2 63,763 57,154 11.6%
Share of associates' operating profit - 253
Loss on disposal of associated undertaking (28) -
Income from listed investments 44 44
Interest payable and similar charges (5,302) (4,398) 20.6%
Profit on ordinary activities before taxation 58,477 53,053 10.2%
Taxation on profit on ordinary activities (16,790) (15,332) 9.5%
Profit on ordinary activities after taxation 41,687 37,721 10.5%
Equity minority interests 567 427 32.8%
Profit for the financial year 42,254 38,148 10.8%
Dividends 4 (16,789) (15,135) 10.9%
Retained profit for the year 25,465 23,013 10.7%
Earnings per share 5 14.50p 13.14p 10.4%
Diluted earnings per share 5 14.44p 13.04p 10.7%
Dividends per share 4 5.75p 5.20p 10.6%
GROUP BALANCE SHEET as at 2 March 2002
2002 2001
£'000 £'000
restated
(note 3)
Fixed assets
Intangible assets 10,096 9,307
Tangible assets 76,324 70,826
Investments 2,870 3,441
89,290 83,574
Current assets
Stocks 38,960 37,814
Debtors 282,166 244,860
Cash at bank and in hand 8,558 3,710
329,684 286,384
Creditors
Amounts falling due within one year (108,826) (91,146)
Net current assets 220,858 195,238
Total assets less current liabilities 310,148 278,812
Creditors
Amounts falling due after more than one year (84,656) (78,193)
Provisions for liabilities and charges (5,009) (5,541)
Net assets 220,483 195,078
Capital and reserves
Called-up share capital 29,369 29,298
Share premium account 6,796 4,919
Revaluation reserve 1,630 1,576
Profit and loss account 183,683 159,821
Equity shareholders' funds 221,478 195,614
Equity minority interests (995) (536)
Capital employed 220,483 195,078
Gearing 42% 40%
GROUP CASH FLOW STATEMENT for the 52 weeks ended 2 March 2002
2002 2002 2001 2001
£'000 £'000 £'000 £'000
Net cash inflow from operating activities 37,644 24,288
Returns on investments and servicing of finance
Interest paid (5,203) (4,674)
Interest element of finance lease payments (174) (203)
Dividends received from investments 44 44
Net cash outflow from returns on investments
and servicing of finance (5,333) (4,833)
Taxation
Corporation tax paid (15,233) (12,427)
Capital expenditure and financial investment
Purchase of tangible fixed assets (16,223) (19,994)
Purchase of intangible fixed assets - (100)
Purchase of fixed asset investment - (117)
Sale of tangible fixed assets 59 45
Decrease in own shares held in trust 56 178
Net cash outflow from capital expenditure
and financial investment (16,108) (19,988)
Acquisitions and disposals
Purchase of subsidiary undertakings (442) (4,825)
Cash at bank and in hand acquired with
subsidiary undertakings - 291
Disposal of investment in associated undertaking 575 -
Net cash inflow (outflow) from acquisitions and
disposals 133 (4,534)
Equity dividends paid (15,727) (13,494)
Cash outflow before financing (14,624) (30,988)
Financing
Issue of ordinary share capital 875 147
Increase in bank loans 19,000 31,000
Capital element of finance lease payments (811) (807)
Net cash inflow from financing 19,064 30,340
Increase (decrease) in cash in the year 4,440 (648)
NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS
2002 2001 %
1 Analysis of turnover £'000 £'000 Increase
Home shopping 435,176 395,984 9.9
Fulfilment 9,178 2,354 289.9
Financial services 4,648 2,154 115.8
449,002 400,492 12.1
2002 2001 %
2 Analysis of operating profit £'000 £'000 Increase
Home shopping 63,190 56,931 11.0
Fulfilment (1,477) (1,385) -6.6
Financial services 2,050 1,608 27.5
63,763 57,154 11.6
3 The report was approved by the board of directors on 16 May 2002 and has been prepared in accordance
with the accounting policies set out in the Annual Report and Accounts for the 53 weeks ended 3 March
2001 except for the adoption of Financial Reporting Standard ('FRS') 19 - 'Deferred tax'. FRS 19
requires deferred taxation to be accounted for on a full provision basis instead of a partial provision
method as previously adopted by the group. This change in accounting policy has been recognised in the
accounts as a prior year adjustment and comparative figures for the 53 weeks ended 3 March 2001 have
been restated. As a result of this change, net assets as at 3 March 2001 have been reduced by
£1,816,000. There is no impact on the profit and loss account for either period.
4 An interim dividend of 1.65p per ordinary share was paid on 4 January 2002 to shareholders on the
register at the close of business on 30 November 2001. A final dividend of 4.10p per ordinary share is
proposed to be paid on 19 July 2002 to shareholders on the register at the close of business on 21 June
2002.
5 The calculation of earnings per share is based on the profit for the financial year and the weighted
average number of shares in issue during the year of 291,315,000 (2001: 290,222,000). For diluted
earnings per share, the weighted average number of shares of 292,688,000 (2001: 292,486,000) has been
calculated after adjusting for the potential dilution of outstanding share options.
6 The summary of results for the 52 weeks ended 2 March 2002 and 53 weeks ended 3 March 2001 do not
constitute full financial statements within the meaning of section 240 of the Companies Act 1985. Full
group accounts for the 53 weeks ended 3 March 2001 have been delivered to the Registrar of Companies
with an unqualified auditors' report. It is expected that the full Annual Report and Accounts for the 52
weeks ended 2 March 2002 will be posted to shareholders on 31 May 2002.
GROUP PROFIT AND LOSS ACCOUNT for the 52 weeks ended 2 March 2002
COMPARED TO THE 52 WEEKS ENDED 3 MARCH 2001 (NON STATUTORY BASIS)
52 weeks 52 weeks %
ended ended
Increase
2 March 3 March
2002 2001
£'000 £'000
Turnover 449,002 393,308 14.2%
Operating profit 63,763 56,137 13.6%
Share of associates' operating profit - 253
Loss on disposal of associated undertaking (28) -
Income from listed investments 44 44
Interest payable and similar charges (5,302) (4,398) 20.6%
Profit on ordinary activities before taxation 58,477 52,036 12.4%
Taxation on profit on ordinary activities (16,790) (15,038) 11.7%
Profit on ordinary activities after taxation 41,687 36,998 12.7%
Equity minority interests 567 427 32.8%
Profit for the financial year 42,254 37,425 12.9%
Dividends (16,789) (15,135) 10.9%
Retained profit for the year 25,465 22,290 14.2%
Earnings per share 14.50p 12.90p 12.4%
Diluted earnings per share 14.44p 12.80p 12.8%
Dividends per share 5.75p 5.20p 10.6%
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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