AGM Statement

RNS Number : 2840A

Wynnstay Group PLC

19 March 2013

 



AIM:WYN

Wynnstay Group plc

("Wynnstay" or "the Group")

AGM Statement

Wynnstay, the agricultural and retail group, will be holding its Annual General Meeting this morning and will make the following comments on current trading.

After a record performance in the last financial year, the first four months of the new financial year, ending 31 October 2013, have started well and the Group is on target to meet management budgets for the first half. 

The Group's broad base of agricultural activities across both the feed and arable markets continues to provide robustness to the business.  Within the feed operations, sales have been strong, in line with industry trends, and this is also reflected in the performance of raw materials trading at Glasson. Within the arable operations, seed sales have been very good and the expected recovery in fertiliser sales, after subdued demand in H2, is coming through as farmers approach the usage period. Trading at GrainLink, the Group's grain marketing operation, has been encouraging although as expected it has been affected by the very poor harvest conditions of 2012, which impacted both grain quality and yields.

The specialist retail division has delivered an encouraging performance to date. The Wynnstay Stores chain, now at 31 stores, continues to benefit from high levels of non-discretionary spend by its farming customer base.  Footfall at the Just for Pets chain, with 21 stores currently, is responding well to marketing initiatives and like-for-like sales are ahead of the same period last year. 

The Board remains confident that Wynnstay is well positioned for ongoing growth and views prospects for the year positively. 

As previously announced, John Davies, Non-executive Director and former Chairman, retires from the Board and the Group today.  The Board takes this opportunity to reiterate its thanks to John on behalf of all staff for his considerable contribution to Wynnstay's development over more than two decades as Chairman. The process to appoint a new Non-executive Director is now well advanced and the Board expects to make an announcement of a new appointment in the coming weeks. Wynnstay also announces that Jeffrey Kendrick, Non-executive Director, proposes to retire from the Board and the Group at the next AGM in 2014. 

Enquiries:

Wynnstay Group plc	Ken Greetham, Chief Executive Paul Roberts, Finance Director	T: 01691 828512
Biddicks	Katie Tzouliadis / Alex Shilov	T: 020 3178 6378
Shore Capital (Nomad)	Stephane Auton / Patrick Castle	T: 020 7408 4090

 

END

 

 

AGMUWABROWAOAAR