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Wednesday 23 March 2005 |
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Woolworths Group plc:
Preliminary Results Announcement 2005
for year ended 29 January 2005 |
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Financial Highlights |
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Total underlying Group sales up 4.5 per cent; like-for-like sales in Woolworths Mainchain down 1.3
per cent |
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Profit before taxation, exceptional items and amortisation of goodwill up 4.7 per cent to £73.1 million
(2004: £69.8 million) |
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Final Woolworths big W exceptional costs anticipated to be £35-40 million; £60.9 million charged in
2004/5 followed by an exceptional credit of c £25 million in 2005/6 |
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Profit before tax after Woolworths big W exceptional £9.3 million (2004: £66.7 million) |
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Adjusted basic earnings per share up 2.9 per cent to 3.6 pence per share |
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Strong cash generation with net funds at year-end of £108.7 million, up from £52.9 million last year-end |
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£72.0 million of capital expenditure, predominantly on store refurbishment and systems |
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Operating Highlights |
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Despite challenging second half, underlying Woolworths retail chain gross margin up 40 basis points |
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Strong performance from Entertainment Wholesale and Publishing businesses including an
encouraging Christmas debut for 2entertain |
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Rollout of Kingstore till systems completed on time and below budget |
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48 stores refitted to 10/10, 2 new openings and a further 50 refits planned for 2005/6 |
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Good progress made on reconfiguration of Woolworths big W store portfolio |
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Apax Offer |
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Received indicative proposal at 58.2p including rights to future dividends |
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Due diligence has commenced |
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Deadline for announcement of offer 6 May 2005 |
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Trevor Bish-Jones, Chief Executive of Woolworths Group Plc commented: |
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“Our entertainment wholesale and publishing businesses have had an excellent year. The performance
of Woolworths was more mixed, but we did achieve a 40 basis point improvement in the gross margin
and have continued to deliver operational improvements in the business. We have a much stronger
product offering and improving store environment for our customers. Despite the more challenging
consumer environment, we continue to see plenty of opportunity to improve the performance of the
business as we have done consistently since demerger.” |
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For further information contact: |
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| Nicole Lander, Head of Corporate Affairs |
0207 706 5653 |
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| Kate Inverarity, Tulchan Communications |
0207 353 4200 |
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