Full Year Trading Update

RNS Number : 2661W

McColl's Retail Group plc

10 December 2019

 

McColl's Retail Group

Full Year Trading Update

Convenience retailer McColl's Retail Group plc today announces its trading update for the 52 week period ended 24 November 2019.

Financial headlines:

·      Total revenue down 1.9% for the full year, reflecting store divestments as we progress with our store optimisation programme.

·      Total like-for-like¹ sales level year-on-year (2018: down 1.4%).

·      Adjusted EBITDA for FY19 expected to be £32m, marginally below expectations as a result of softer market conditions in H2 due to unseasonable weather and lower consumer confidence.

·      Continued progress with debt reduction programme with net debt down to £94.1m (2018: £98.6m).

Operational highlights

·      Continued operational progress with improved on-shelf availability and advancement of category review programme.

·      Trialling new propositional enhancements including a scalable food-to-go format, last-mile delivery with Uber Eats and improved customer segmentation of the estate.

·      Strengthened leadership team with the appointment of Robbie Bell as Chief Financial Officer and Richard Crampton as Chief Commercial Officer.

Jonathan Miller, Chief Executive, said:

"While 2019 has been another challenging year for the business, we have made good progress against our goals of operational stability and good retail execution. We are also pleased to confirm that we have continued to reduce net debt, with further progress anticipated due to our ongoing capital discipline.

"The fundamentals of the convenience channel are strong and we remain a resilient, profitable and cash generative business. We are confident in our plans to rebuild momentum in 2020, and look forward to providing a fuller strategy update at our Preliminary Results in February."

¹ Like-for-like sales reflect sales from stores that have traded throughout the current and prior financial periods, and sales include VAT but exclude sales of fuel, lottery, mobile phone top up and travel tickets.

Enquiries

Please visit www.mccollsplc.co.uk or for further information, please contact:

McColl's Retail Group plc                                                      Media enquiries:

Jonathan Miller, Chief Executive                                               Headland

Robbie Bell, Chief Financial Officer                                           Ed Young, Rob Walker, Charlie Twigg

[phone]                                                             [phone]

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of the Market Abuse

Regulation (EU) No 596/2014

LEI: 213800R1TLR536P8YJ67

Notes to editors

McColl's is a leading neighbourhood retailer operating McColl's branded convenience stores as well as newsagents branded Martin's across the UK, except in Scotland where we operate under our heritage brand, RS McColl. Our dedicated colleagues serve five million customers every week, and we are the largest operator of Post Offices in the UK.

 

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