Sales improve and losses narrow at ScS
Furniture and flooring retailer ScS saw its total sales order intake increase by 9.1% on a like-for-like basis in the 26 weeks ended 23 January.
Gross sales were up 10.2% to £145.4 million while gross profit rose by 13% to £64.8 million.
Meanwhile, the company made an operating loss of £3.4 million compared to loss of £5.3 million before exceptional items in the corresponding period in the previous year.
ScS opened one new store in the period and plans to launch two further stores in Aberdeen and Plymouth in late summer 2016. This will be followed by the opening of a new Thanet store on Boxing Day 2016.
Its House of Fraser concession, which ScS said builds brand awareness, saw gross sales rise by 18.1%.
Further development of the ScS e-commerce platform led to online gross sales climbing by 17.3% to £4.3 million.
David Knight, ScS chief executive said: “Current trading, supported by enhanced marketing spend, remains strong with like-for-like sales orders up 12% for the first 37 weeks of FY16, including the key Easter sales period. This gives us good visibility for the second half and although the key May Bank Holiday day trading period is still to come, the board currently expects results for this financial year to be modestly ahead of market expectations following the trading update on 16 January 2016.”
