Sunderland furniture giant ScS sees sharp jump in profits

The firm has released its Preliminary Results for the year to the end of July this morning.

They show that gross sales improved by £2.8million to £352.3million, while revenue was up 4.3million, to £337.3million.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation increased 8.1%, to £18.8million, and operating profit rose 10.5% to £13.2million.

The firm enjoyed success on-line, with gross sales up 22.6% to £13.8million, and opened a new store in Chemlmsford, bringing the nationwide network to 101 outlets.

And current trading looks healthy, with sales order intake up 2.1% on a like-for-like basis for the nine weeks to September 29

Chief executive David Knight said: "2018 has been another strong year.

"Despite a prolonged period of economic uncertainty and challenging trading conditions, we have continued to grow the business.

"I believe this is due to our continued focus on what we do best - ensuring that we offer an excellent customer experience with outstanding value, quality and choice.

"The downturn in sales in our House of Fraser concessions has been more than offset by growth in our core ScS business. This has been aided by record results from our online channel, which has seen a 22.6% increase in gross sales..

"Since the start of the current financial year, the overall trading performance of the Group has been in line with our expectations. Due to the ongoing changes at House of Fraser, trading within our concessions, which represented 7.1% of FY18 gross sales, remains challenging and we are working with the new owners to address this as a priority.

"Performance in our core ScS business has been encouraging.

"We will continue to focus on our value offering and we believe the group’s increasing resilience and strong cash flow dynamics will enable us to manage the continued economic uncertainty and take advantage of opportunities as they arise, allowing us to continue to deliver value for our shareholders.”