Business
Interim results for the 26 weeks ended 27 Oct 2019
Interim results for the 26 weeks ended 27 Oct 2019.
About this update from Theworks.co.uk Plc
[{"type":"text","content":"\n \nRNS Number : 9545Z TheWorks.co.uk PLC 16 January 2020 \n\n16 January 2020\n \nTheWorks.co.uk plc \nInterim results for the 26 weeks ended 27 October 2019 and trading update\n \n \nTheWorks.co.uk plc (\"The Works\", the \"Company\" or the \"Group\"), the multi-channel value retailer of gifts, arts, crafts, toys, books and stationery, announces its interim results for the 26 weeks ended 27 October 2019 (the \"Period\" or \"H1 FY20\") and an update on current trading.\n \n \nTrading Update: 11 weeks to 12 January 2020\n \n· Solid LFL sales, up 1.5% over the period (11 weeks to 13 January 2019: +4.5%), reflecting growth in both stores and online in key Christmas trading period\n· Record Christmas sales performance delivered against tough comparatives and a difficult consumer backdrop\n· Strong sales of core Christmas offering, including benefits of new product ranges and merchandising initiatives rolled out in the first half, as well as sales of products linked to Frozen 2 film release\n· Slower start to post-Christmas sale leading to increased discounting to improve sell-through\n· Reflecting seasonal nature of the business, Company will deliver strong cash generation in the second half of its financial year and expects to be broadly debt free by year-end \n· Trading is in-line with the Board's full-year expectations\n \nInterim Results: 26 weeks to 27 October 2019\n \n· LFL sales decline of 1.9% (excluding the impact of prior year Mega Trends4), impacted by the difficult consumer backdrop\n· Adjusted EBITDA loss of £4.3m, reflecting the seasonal nature of the business\n· Opened 28 net new stores, with a further 13 opened since the Period end, taking total to 538. Continued strong returns on new store openings, with payback of around one year\n· Focus on driving profitable growth in the existing business. No further net new store openings planned for the rest of the current financial year, with a net 20 openings planned for FY21\n· Good progress with new web platform and online fulfilment partner, alongside delivering propositional changes to increase average item ...