Agenda: Joules, B&M and Bonmarché update the market

Joules  

Joules posts its full-year results on Tuesday. 

The fashion retailer’s sales rocketed during its full year, the group said in a pre-close update at the beginning of June.

Sales rose 17.2% to £218m in the year to May 26 and profits are expected to be at the upper end of its guidance.

Retail sales rose 22.7% to £159.1m, while wholesale rose 2.9% to £57.1m due to some former wholesale accounts now being classified as retail concessions. Licensing revenue shot up 147.3% to £1.8m thanks to new partnerships.

McColl’s

McColl’s posts its half-year results on Tuesday.

Profit before tax fell from £18.4m to £7.9m in the year to November 5, 2018, when total sales rose 8.1% to £1.24bn.

McColl’s said like for likes fell 1.4% as disruption to its supply chain, but they improved over the year to become flat in the final quarter and so far in the new financial year like for likes have advanced 1.2%.

Kantar/Nielsen 

The latest Kantar/Nielsen grocery sales figures are released on Tuesday.

Grocery sales have risen 1.4% year on year, representing three years of continuous growth, the Kantar data revealed last month.

The sales advance over the 12 weeks to June 16 was however described as “modest” against a period last year when a heatwave and the men’s football World Cup boosted performance.

The latest data showed that sales fell at all of the big four grocers, with the exception of Tesco, which was flat.

Asda’s sales edged down 0.1% while Morrisons’ and Sainsbury’s were down 0.5% and 0.6% respectively. Sales at Aldi rose 9.3%, while Lidl notched up a 7.5% increase. Ocado’s sales rose 11.3% and the Co-op was up 3%.

B&M

B&M posts its first-quarter results on Wednesday.

The value retailer posted a jump in full-year profits despite ongoing struggles in the German market, driven by rapid store expansion.

The value operator said pre-tax profit swelled 10.3% to £249.4m in the 52 weeks to March 30.

Adjusted to strip out the impact of exceptional items, earnings before tax advanced 8.2% to £239.8m. Adjusted EBITDA climbed 11.9% to £312.3m.

B&M hailed a 17.1% spike in group revenues to £3.5bn during the year, but like for likes inched up at the much slower rate of 0.7%.

Sales across B&M’s Heron Food business surged 68.6% to £354.1m, while revenues from its core B&M fascia were up 8.7% to £2.8bn.

Bonmarché 

Bonmarché posts its preliminary results on Friday.

The value fashion retailer warned it will make a worse than expected loss this year after tough trading in March.

Bonmarché had previously anticipated an underlying loss of up to £4m, but the figure is now expected to be between £5m and £6m.

The warning was Bonmarché’s third in six months.