Revenue growth across all areas of the business
Robust Retail sales improving through the period
Motoring +1.1% and Cycling +4.6% on a LFL basis, with total Cycling sales up 15.4%
Tredz & Wheelies revenues up 25% year-on-year since acquisition
Autocentres sales +0.9% LFL and +3.6% in total
Online sales across the Group increased 30%
Operating margins impacted by investments in long-term growth, FX and promotional activity
- Average hedged US$ rate declined from $1.56 to $1.46 accounting for circa 100bps of gross margin, to be mitigated over time
- Mix impact from first-time inclusion of lower-margin Tredz and Wheelies
- Cycling promotional activity during the Summer was deeper than last year
- Investment in training and pay as part of our Gears programme, leading to lowest ever colleague turnover
Strong strategic progress
- Investment in services delivered an increase in service-related sales by 13.8%
- Significant progress in Single Customer View; 31% of sales now matched to customers
- Delivered Single View of Stock, Tradecard online and CycleRepublic.com. Other major IT projects in pilot
- Refurbishment of 12 Retail stores and 12 Autocentres, opening of 2 Autocentres and 2 Cycle Republic stores
- New products, services and collaborations, including Wiggins and Trott bike ranges, Orla Kiely camping and travel accessories, and re-launch of Tradecard
Increased dividend underpinned by progress on strategy implementation and good cash flow
- Interim dividend per share of 5.83p, up 3.0%
- Free cash flow of £24.2m, up 24.1%
- Net debt at £64.8m, representing 0.6x EBITDA
