Group Highlights
Home Retail Group, the UK’s leading home
and general merchandise retailer, publishes its first Annual Report
for the financial period ended 3 March 2007. The financial period
is shorter than a full year due to the change in year-end and it
also includes certain financial impacts of GUS plc’s ownership of
Home Retail Group up to the point of demerger on 10 October 2006.
To assist with analysis and comparison, certain pro forma information
has therefore been provided to eliminate the distortions of these
two impacts on the performance of Home Retail Group.
Operating highlights
- Delivered on each element of the strategy for
growth
- Expanded product choice, improved ranges and
enhanced the customer offer
- Extended our leading market share in UK home
and general merchandise
- Driven gross margin benefits through leverage
of purchasing scale and ongoing supply chain initiatives
- Enlarged the combined portfolio by 38 stores
to reach 990
- Capitalised on clear multi-channel retail leadership
- Established further initiatives and operational
improvements to continue driving sustainable growth
Financial highlights
- Pro forma sales up 6% in total to £5,851m
(2006: £5,510m) with like-for-like sales up 2.4% at Argos
and down 1.4% at Homebase; reported sales of £5,607m
- Pro forma benchmark operating profit up 8% to
£359.4m (2006: £331.8m) with growth at both Argos
and Homebase; reported operating profit of £305.2m
- Pro forma benchmark profit before tax up 12%
to £376.7m (2006: £337.1m); reported profit before
tax of £296.9m
- Pro forma basic benchmark earnings per share
up 14% to 29.3p (2006: 25.6p); reported basic earnings per share
of 21.6p
- Benchmark pre-tax return on invested capital
up 150 basis points to 12.0%
- Final dividend of 9.0p recommended, making 13.0p
for the year
05 onwards under IFRS, 06 and 07 are on a 52-week
pro forma basis
The basis of preparation of pro forma restatements
is set out in the Financial Summary
and benchmark measures in the Financial
Review.
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