Mr Price dressed in Sunday best
May 31, 2007
Johannesburg - Clothing retailer Mr Price on Thursday reported a 27 percent growth in diluted headline earnings per share to 183.6 cents for its financial year from 144.7 cents in 2006.
A distribution per share of 101 cents was also reported from the 81 cents distributed a year earlier, an increase of 25 percent.
Retail sales for the year to 31 March were up 24 percent to R6.1 billion, while the company also reported that 80 new stores had been opened during the period.
Despite the debtors book growing to R450 million, cash sales as a percentage of total sales only dropped marginally from 89 percent to 84 percent and the group said it expects to remain a predominantly cash retailer.
Bad debt less recoveries amounted to 2.3 percent of credit sales, or 5.1 percent of the debtors book, with an impairment provision of 7.8 percent of the debtors book at year end.
Comparable store sales grew by 11.6 percent and weighted average trading space by 17.8 percent.
"The favourable trading conditions outlined above have allowed the group to adopt an investment approach that should further extend our excellent track record of profitable sales growth and increased shareholder wealth, whilst maintaining the operating margin above 10 percent," the company said.
"The group has set revised five year targets of R15 billion revenue and an operating margin in excess of 12 percent. The revenue targets are planned to be achieved via a mix of expanded and new stores, as well as new concepts, two of which are expected to be launched over the next two years." - I-Net Bridge
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