Crawshaw Group 2nd Half Trading In Line With Management Hopes

Crawshaw Group, the meat focused retailer, said Monday that in the second half of the financial year ended Jan. 31, 2009, the company has continued to trade in line with management's expectations.

Comparable sales in the third quarter were ahead by 5% and in the fourth quarter ahead by 6%. Gross margin was slightly behind budget as certain input prices were high and management decided to absorb the increase as they expect these input prices to revert back to lower levels shortly.

Comparable sales for the first 4 weeks of the current year are up and in line with budget.

A total of five new stores have now been opened since summer 2008. They are making excellent progress with their performances to budget for the first month of the current financial year being 108%, 101%, 105%, 95%, and 167% respectively. Two further new stores are expected to open over the coming weeks.

These new stores cover a variety of different locations and formats and the board now wish to postpone opening further new stores until late summer 2009 in order that the financial returns of each store type may be fully evaluated - in doing this the management team believe it can maximise returns on future new stores.

Additionally, the board feels this cautious approach is appropriate in the current external financial environment.

The company confirms that it has renegotiated the terms of its GBP2.5 million revolving credit facility with the Royal Bank of Scotland.

As a result, the term of the facility has been extended to Jun. 30, 2010.

Crawshaw (LSE:CRAW)
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