Pepco Group reports like-for-like sales growth of 6.5 percent

European variety discount retailer, Pepco Group, in its update for the financial year ending September 30, 2021 said that full year revenue of 4,122 million euros, rose 19.4 percent year on year led by 29.2 percent growth at Pepco.

The company reported total like-for-like sales growth of 6.5 percent including 10.2 percent growth in the fourth quarter and 9.8 percent for the full year at Pepco and 1 percent in Q4 and 3.1 percent for the full year at Poundland / Dealz.

“We delivered another strong trading performance and made good progress against our strategic plans during the year. Despite the operational challenges from Covid disruption, we continued to open new stores across all three of our brands, opening 141 in the final quarter. While the backdrop against which we operate will remain challenging for some time, we remain confident in the significant growth opportunity we have, our plans to achieve them, and meeting future market expectations,” said Andy Bond, CEO of Pepco Group.

The company, owner of the Pepco and Dealz brands in Europe and Poundland in the UK, added that full year underlying EBITDA is anticipated to be within a range of 640 million to 655 million euros. This range is at the upper end of analyst expectations and represents 45 percent growth at the mid-point on the Covid impacted prior year.

The company further said that store openings are in line with guidance with 424 net new stores opened in the year. The company operates 483 stores including Fultons stores acquired trading at the year-end. 364 new Pepco stores were opened during the year under review, including 33 in the Western European markets of Italy and Spain and first three stores in Austria. Poundland / Dealz opened 60 net new stores, 119 including Fultons.