AGM Statement

Brown (N.) Group PLC 3 July 2002 N BROWN GROUP PLC 3 July 2002 AGM Statement N Brown Group plc, the Manchester based direct home shopping, fulfilment and financial services company, will be holding its Annual General Meeting later today. At the meeting, Sir David Alliance CBE, Chairman, will give the following trading update: 'Turnover in the first 17 weeks of the current year is ahead by 6%, maintaining a similar rate of increase to that reported at the Preliminary Results Announcement on the 16th May. Our current performance, coming on top of strong growth in the corresponding period last year, is most encouraging. We have continued to experience strong sales growth in household and electrical products, which are 28% higher, partly in response to the extra space allocated to these goods in our catalogues. Extra space will now be added to clothing and footwear, sales of which are broadly in line with last year. There has been a strong increase in turnover generated by catalogues aimed at our younger customers aged 30 - 45 and in our door to door collections business, House of Stirling. The balance of mix towards household and electricals slightly reduces gross margins. Compensating operational costs have also come down. Since the year end, our financial services and fulfilment divisions have continued to perform well and in line with our expectations. We recently announced our joint venture with Securicor Omega, which will support our growth plans in our courier-based operation in terms of improving the quality as well as the costs of our delivery. To continue our drive to further improve our customer service levels, today we have opened a state of the art one thousand feet call centre in central Manchester. Ladies and Gentlemen, I am pleased with our current performance and feel confident that we will once again make good progress this year.' -Ends- Enquiries: N Brown Group plc Tel: 0161 236 8256 Jim Martin, Chief Executive Tim Kowalski, Finance Director www.nbrown.co.uk Gavin Anderson & Co Tel: 020 7554 1400 Neil Garnett/Charlotte Stone This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
UK 100

Latest directors dealings