Bargain Booze owner says revenues will exceed last year’s
Bargain Booze owner Conviviality Retail has said that its full year revenues are expected to be ahead of last year despite new store openings being later than expected.
In the year to 26 April, the company expects revenue to be approximately £364 million compared to £355.7 million in the previous year. EBITDA is also anticipated to be ahead of expectations.
While retail sales are in line with last year, like-for-like retail sales at Bargain Booze stores have fallen by 1.7%, with underlying retail sales per store rising by 0.5%.
The company said its Wine Rack chain is continuing to see modest growth with like-for-like sales up 0.1%.
In February, Conviviality acquired GT News for £6 million to bring an additional 37 stores into the group. Later in the month, it announced that the majority would be franchised to Jonathan James.
Over the last year, Conviviality has been focusing on helping its franchisees to build more profitable businesses and the group said this has led to 21 existing franchisees opening additional stores and 35 new franchisees joining the group.
Conviviality has also invested in store fascias, modernised its brands and worked to engage more with customers through social media and digital marketing. In addition, it launched a pilot click and collect service in April.
The group has also recently appointed Carol Savage to the newly created role of chief customer officer and today announced the appointment of former Homebase director Ian Jones as a non-executive director.
