Everything looks rosy for Blooms.Byline: By John RevillBlooms of Bressingham plans to spend up to pounds 2 million on refurbishing its garden centres after a strong performance at its new sites in Rugby and Gloucester. The company said it was also looking at adding one or two new centres to the eight it already owns around Britain. Financial director Wendy King said the firm planned to refurbish re·fur·bish tr.v. re·fur·bished, re·fur·bish·ing, re·fur·bish·es To make clean, bright, or fresh again; renovate. re·fur many of its older sites, like Solihull, which had languished amid the general retail downturn Downturn The transition point between a rising, expanding economy to a falling, contracting one. downturn A decline in security prices or economic activity following a period of rising or stable prices or activity. . She said: "We are looking at spending between pounds 1pounds 2 million over the next two years, improving shop fitting, adding cafes and upgrading the gift area. "At Solihull we are looking to expand. Extra features like cafes are an essential additional attraction for visitors coming to our centres." Ms King was speaking as the Gloucester company revealed a strong performance by its two new super centres in Rugby and Gloucester had boosted first half sales and profits. Figures for the six months to July 31 showed a 26.7 per cent leap in turnover to pounds 12.41 million, while pretax pre·tax adj. Existing before tax deductions: pretax income. pretax adj [profit] → vor (Abzug der) Steuern profits increased by 56.4 per cent to pounds 1.877 million. Chairman Charles Good said: "The results for the first half show the positive effects of our two new large centres, Gloucester and Rugby, which opened in the spring. "As foreshadowed in our annual report, the first half has benefited from the sale and leaseback A transaction whereby land is sold and subsequently rented by the seller from the purchaser who is the new owner. at Gloucester, which has produced an exceptional profit of pounds 854,000." Mr Good said trading at the two new centres continued to be up to expectations, but the older sites had suffered, with sales down by 3.6 per cent. He added: "It is clear that our older centres would now benefit from refurbishment re·fur·bish tr.v. re·fur·bished, re·fur·bish·ing, re·fur·bish·es To make clean, bright, or fresh again; renovate. re·fur and extension." Work has already started at Cardiff, where the company is expanding the restaurant and investing in new shop fittings to improve merchandising merchandising Element of marketing concerned especially with the sale of goods and services to customers. One aspect of merchandising is advertising, which aims to capture the interest of the segment of the population most likely to buy the product. . Cheltenham will also benefit from refurbishment to include investment in new shop fittings. Mr Good said the improvements would be funded out of lease finance together with trading cash flow and should be finished in time for next spring's crucial trading season. He added: "We continue to look actively to buy new centres fulfilling our criteria of first class location, good main-road access and proximity to population of sufficient size. "We will not buy sites that do not meet or have the potential to meet our criteria of achieving potential minimum sales of pounds 4 million." Mr Good said despite the progress the company was experiencing some of the effects of the retail slowdown. He said: "We have broadened and deepened our Christmas offer and although we expect it to perform well, it remains to be seen whether this will be enough to offset the tougher general trading conditions. "However, the momentum from the new centres at Rugby and Gloucester together with the refurbishments at Cardiff and Cheltenham, should put us in a good position to withstand the poorer retailing climate and carry on with our ambitious re-development and expansion programme |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion