Crawshaw Group sees improved momentum over Christmas

6th Jan 2017 10:07

(ShareCast News) - Fresh meat and food-to-go retailer Crawshaw Group updated the market on Christmas trading for the five week period from 29 November to 1 January on Friday.The AIM-traded company said it continued to build on the progress noted in its last update with the improvements in sales and customer numbers being maintained through December.Group sales were up 13% in the period compared to the prior year, with total customer numbers also up 13% for the same period.Like-for-like sales were down 3.8%, and like-for-like customer numbers were down 4.2%, although these were both improvements from previous rates of decline.As a result of a moderate level of margin investment, gross margins in the like-for-like stores stood at 43.6% H2 2017 to date, against 44.9% at the same time last year."We continue to be encouraged by the customer response to the recent changes we've made which have translated into further progress over the festive trading period," said CEO Noel Collett."Our new hamper range was particularly well received with almost 3,000 hampers sold in the Christmas week."Our focus will continue to be centred on anchoring our value credentials and we will step up our marketing activity to maintain our current momentum in building customer frequency and loyalty."