Sales and profit up as Sunderland's ScS announces its interim results

The firm has revealed its results for the 26 weeks to the end of January this morning.

Gross sales were up 1.2% to £159.2million, while revenue rose 1.1% to £151.4 million.

Gross profit also increased, up 1.5% to £71.5million, while underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation from continuing operations improved by £0.3m to £3.4million.

Like-for-like order intake rose 1.5% and continued investment in in the firm's e-commerce offering saw online sales increase by 30% to £7.8million.

Chief executive David Knight said: "The group continues to deliver profitable growth whilst increasing its resilience.

"The board is pleased with the group’s year to date trading, which is in line with its expectations. For the 33 weeks ended 16 March 2019, the group achieved like-for-like order intake growth of 2.9% and two-year like-for-like order intake growth of 4.6%.

"Our focus on providing excellent choice, value and quality for our customers, coupled with our commitment to delivering against our strategic priorities, continues to prove successful.

"The retail market continues to suffer in the midst of the uncertain economic and political environment.

"We, therefore, expect the trading environment to continue to remain challenging in the short to medium term, although the board is confident that the group is well positioned to maximise opportunities as they arise."

The firm remains committed to its Sunderland roots and employs more than 150 people at its head office in the city.

"We have got 160 people in Sunderland," said Mr Knight.

"That is where the callcentres are based and we have got a new web development team in there now."

Feedback from customer reaction service Trustpilot showed the firm's commitment to quality customer serve was paying off: "We had 100,000 entries, we now have more than 135,000 entries and we have retained the five star rating that we had."

Mr Knight said he believed the firm would benefit from the current uncertainty over Brexit. with customers more likely to choose to do business with well-established firms: "They are going to shop with someone that has been around fro a long time," he said.

"