Annual sales and profit increase at Pepco Group

European variety discount retailer, Pepco Group, which owns the Pepco and Dealz brands in Europe and Poundland in the UK, in its preliminary financial results for the year ending September 30, 2021 said, total revenue was 4,122 million euros, up 17.2 percent or 19.3 percent on constant currency basis.

The company said in a statement that Pepco Goup was able to achieve this result despite a challenging trading environment affected by Covid, in which approximately 9 percent of trading weeks were lost due to store closures. Pepco’s LFL growth was 9.8 percent for the full year, including the impacts of Covid-related store closures, while Poundland Group’s full year LFL was 3.1 percent. Group gross profit margin was 42.9 percent, a 220 bps improvement over last year.

Commenting on the results, Andy Bond, CEO, Pepco Group, said: “We delivered another strong financial performance in the last year, while further strengthening our balance sheet. In this current financial year, we intend to invest to maintain or grow our price advantage and support customers at a time when household budgets remain stretched.”

The group’s underlying EBITDA reached 647 million euros compared to 442 million euros last year, while underlying profit before tax was 244 million euros compared to 49 million euros in FY20, representing a fivefold improvement.

The company added that store openings were in line with guidance with 483 net new stores opened in the year, comprising of 364 new Pepco store openings, including 36 in the Western European markets of Italy, Spain and Austria and first stores in Serbia; and 119 Poundland Group store openings driven by Dealz expansion in Poland and Spain.