Theo Paphitis Retail Group (“The Group”) Full Year Trading Results March 2024 & Audited Financial Statements March 2023
Theo Paphitis Retail Group (“The Group”) Full Year Trading Results March 2024 & Audited Financial Statements March 2023
Improved Profitability with Stores Building on Growth in Challenging Market Conditions.
Theo Paphitis Increases Investment to Support Future and Development of Brands.
Ryman:
Proactive inventory management and continuing return of footfall, in particular to City Centre high street stores, results in an increase in trading margin in our key channel of 7.4% on a sales increase of 2.5% for the year to March 2024. Building on growth of 15% in 2023.
Ryman turnover £104.6m for March 2024 v £107.6m in March 2023 (53 wks). Growth in stores, and a focus on profitability on e-commerce resulted in lower sales but improved profitability on this channel.
EBITDA for full year to March 2024 at £2.7m, an improvement of over £4m on March 2023 result.
CLBILS (Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme) of £5m repaid in March 2024 as planned. Additional shareholder funding secured through to 2026.
Launch of Ryman Design Stores, loyalty scheme Ryman Rewards, and Ryman App providing Personalised Greeting Cards across the national chain of 197 stores.
London Graphic Centre (LGC), part of the Ryman group, showed exceptional performance with like-for-like store sales of 11.1% for the year to March 2024.
Theo Paphitis, Chairman and Owner, Ryman:
“I am very pleased with the progress made by the Ryman business over the last 2 years, as it recovered from the impact of the pandemic. I increased my personal involvement in the business as CEO 16 months ago. As well as increased time in the business, I have invested and committed to further funding to ensure Ryman has the resources to build on this progress. Ryman has repaid £5m of its CLBILs loan, as planned, to our Bank in March 2024.
I’ve owned Ryman for 30 years and am as fond of the brand as ever. I’m extremely excited to see the recent initiatives focused on our customers develop over the coming year.
There is no doubt that retailing, particularly on high streets, has tested us to the full, especially coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the lack of any much-needed acknowledgement from the Government of retail’s contribution to local communities and economies continues to disappoint. They continue to kick the retail business rates can down the road.”
Robert Dyas:
EBITDA for the year to March 2024 broadly in line with 2023 of £0.2m profit, on a turnover for March 2024 £164.9m vs March 2023 £174.4m (53 wks).
Year to March 2023 sales of £174.4m from growth of 6% overall and 8.7% in stores continuing the recovery from the pandemic.
Performance for 2024, of -3.2% store like for like sales, impacted by poor summer season and mild winter, in line with much of the sector, as well as strong comparables on Air Fryers and other cost of living related products in 2022. Trading margin slightly ahead of 2023.
Investment made in new store openings in Saffron Walden and Bracknell with further locations under consideration.
MyDyas customer rewards scheme launched and further investment in e–commerce capability to continue on strong growth in recent years in dropship.
No external borrowing.
Theo Paphitis, Chairman and Owner, Robert Dyas added:
“Robert Dyas has continued its development and has been successful in offering a truly multi-channel proposition to our customers. Our E-commerce business is just over 40% of the total and has a strong platform to build on for the future.
We have carefully opened new stores, investing in the high street and its communities, and are looking for further opportunities, as well as extending our joint stores with Ryman, which our customers have responded well to. We saw strong demand from energy saving products, in particular during the winter of 2022, when consumers faced significant pressure on their cost of living. We are well placed for the upcoming Spring and Summer season and hope the British weather is kinder to us all this year!”
Boux Avenue:
Improved margins and marketing performance is expected to result in an improvement in EBITDA for the year to March 2024 of just over £2m on 2023.
Turnover for 2024 is £60.1m v March 2023 (53 wks) £62.6m. Improvement in profitability due to improved margin, digital marketing and distribution costs following investment in automation.
Trading partnerships with other retailers, including, most recently M&S, has extended the channels to pursue growth for the brand and provide further options for our customers to purchase.
Good performance in the last two quarters, which included the peaks of Black Friday, Christmas and Valentines is encouraging for the coming year where focus will continue on marketing performance, retailer partnerships and customer retention, through a relaunch of our VIP scheme.
Investment made in warehouse automation in 2022, which caused some disruption in peak in December 2022. Significant improvements and efficiencies delivered in 2023 and ongoing. Capacity in place for future growth.
Customers responded well to our gifting range, including nightwear collections as well as to core everyday lingerie. New Solutions range launched which has traded particularly well across all channels.
Theo Paphitis, Chairman and Owner, Boux Avenue:
“I have continued to invest in the Boux Avenue business and despite a very challenging year to March 2023, I am pleased that progress has been made in the last 12 months and in particular, the momentum since November through our key trading periods is encouraging.
Our ranges are responding well in our extended and established trading partnerships with other retailers, such as Marks & Spencer, ASOS and Next, through wholesale, direct dispatch and consignment capabilities which we have invested in to develop our proposition further.
To enable increased capacity for future growth, we also invested significantly in automation within our owned warehouse facility in Crewe. Productivity in order dispatch during November and December 2023 was over 60% better than the previous year.
We are finalising our financial statements for the year to March 2023 in the next month and I look forward to building on the most recent progress made with the brand.”