Business Highlights
A strong broad-based sales performance; driven by new products and brands, compelling offers and improving customer service
The Getting Into Gear strategy continues to progress well
46% of colleagues through Gear 2 training with customer feedback scores rising further
45 stores refreshed and Cycle Republic launched
Jill McDonald joins as CEO in May 2015
Financial Highlights
Group revenues exceeded £1bn, a year ahead of plan
Retail LFL growth of 7.0% and Q4 +7.5%, the 11th successive quarter of growth
Online Retail sales exceeded £100m; growth of +14.3% (Q4: +12.6%)
Group EBITDA up 8.7% with EBITDA margin improvement
Basic earnings per share up 13.8%
Proposed full-year dividend per share of 16.5p up 15.4%
Net Debt reduced to £61.8m, with Net Debt to EBITDA (52 week) at 0.6:1
Dennis Millard, Chairman, commented:
"This was another year of strong revenue growth, this time against tough comparatives, and leading to a pleasing improvement in profitability. We are delighted to have exceeded £1bn of Group Revenue, a year ahead of plan, and are building a sustainable platform for future growth. At the very core of our strategy is customer service and investment in our colleagues, our proposition and our infrastructure. In Retail, colleagues progressed well through their Gear 2 training, customer satisfaction scores rose, we have more refreshed stores and launched Cycle Republic and we strengthened our authority in our core categories. Autocentres has a clear strategy under new leadership, but whilst it has delivered an improved sales performance, there is room for improvement.
"There still remains much to do in both Retail and Autocentres and FY16 will be a particularly busy year of activity and investment as we continue to focus on driving the top-line and rolling out our Getting Into Gear strategy. I would like to warmly welcome Jill McDonald, our new CEO who started a few weeks ago, and who joins at an exciting time."
