Retail Week looks ahead to the next seven days, with financial updates from Aldi, Card Factory, Hotel Chocolat, Moss Bros and Boohoo all on the agenda.

Aldi

The discount grocer unveils its results for the 2016 calendar year on Monday, September 25.

Aldi grew its UK and Irish sales 12% during the year to £7.7bn as it continued to heap pressure on its mainstream supermarket rivals.

However, its operating profit slipped 1.8% to £255.6m following investments in price and its aggressive store expansion plan.

Aldi continues to grow ahead of the market alongside discount rival Lidl, and became the UK’s fifth largest grocer earlier this year after leapfrogging the Co-op.

Card Factory

The specialist retailer will report its interim results on Tuesday, September 26.

Having racked up solid like-for-likes in its last full-year, Card Factory is in line to perform strongly once again.

Boss Karen Hubbard will no doubt give more detail on its store expansion plan with retail parks a new area of focus for the retailer. It will be interesting to find out how its fledgling business in Ireland is performing.

Boohoo

The Manchester-based etailer is due to reveal its interim results on Wednesday, September 27.

Boohoo’s pre-tax profits doubled last year with group sales up 51% and US sales spiking 140%.

Joint chief executive Carol Kane and Mahmud Kamani termed it a “momentous year” and the industry will be keen to see how their acquisitions of Nasty Gal and Pretty Little Thing are bedding in.

Hotel Chocolat

The upmarket chocolatier posts its preliminary results on Wednesday, September 27.

Full-year sales rose 12% in July to £104m in the 52 weeks to June 25, “slightly ahead of expectations”.

The retailer and brand, which floated on AIM last May, is expected to convert those sales into a solid bottom line performance.

Hotel Chocolat revealed in August that it is opening a clutch of stores in Hong Kong, in what will be its first push outside of Europe since retrenching from the US.

Moss Bros

The formal menswear retailer reveals its interim results on Thursday, September 28.

Analysts will expect Moss Bros to build on a strong 2016/17 financial year, when pre-tax profit before exceptional items jumped 20.3% to £7.1m.

The retailer enjoyed a 2.3% increase in like-for-likes during the first 15 weeks of its current financial year, but warned that it was “acutely aware of the economic headwinds” after re-introducing its mid-season Sale during tough trading conditions.

 

Topics