Pepco Group posts increase in first half sales and profit
Pepco Group, the owner of the Pepco and Dealz brands in Europe and Poundland in the UK, saw its revenue climb by 9% at constant currency in the first half of its financial year.
In the six months to 31 March, trading store like-for-like sales growth was 5%, although group like-for-like sales declined by 2.1% due to around 15% of trading weeks being lost due to Covid-19 related store closures across the group. Pepco Group said all its stores are now trading, although some still face restrictions with regard to customer footfall.
Underlying EBITDA increased by 16.8% to €324 million while underlying pre-tax profit climbed by 47.2% to £112 million.
During the period, the group continued its store expansion programme with 129 net new Pepco stores and 27 new Dealz shops. In addition, the Poundland store portfolio was boosted by the acquisition of 80 Fultons Frozen Foods stores in the period.
Looking ahead, Andy Bond, chief executive of Pepco Group, said: “We anticipate that the environment in which we operate will remain changeable and challenging in the short term but over time as consumer behaviour returns to more normal patterns, as any Covid related restrictions that impact our customers confidence to shop are further relaxed.
“However, as these results show, we have a clear and winning customer offer, a long-term growth strategy delivering stores in existing and exciting new markets, as well as a number of key initiatives to drive our sales and margin. As such, we remain confident about our prospects for continued profitable growth in the balance of the financial year and beyond.”
