HALF YEAR RESULTS
(For the 28 weeks ended 13 April 2019)
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Adjusted operating profita and margina growth |
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Continued market outperformanceb |
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Momentum growing from fresh initiatives |
Trading results
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Like-for-like salesa growth of 4.1% in the first half |
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Adjusted operating profita growth of £10m to £151m (H1 2018 £141m) |
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Adjusted earnings per sharea growth of 15.8% to 16.1p (H1 2018 13.9p) |
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Operational highlights
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Strong first half with market outperformance and return to profit growth |
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Improved returns from capital programme with 208 projects completed |
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Sales focused initiatives driving improved performance across the portfolio |
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Efficiencies resulted in increased operating margin of 12.7% (H1 2018 12.5%) |
Reported results
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Total revenue of £1,186m (H1 2018 £1,130m) Operating profit of £140m (H1 2018 £137m) Profit before tax of £75m (H1 2018 £69m) |
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Basic earnings per share of 14.3p (H1 2018 13.0p) |
Balance sheet and cash flow
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Capital expenditure of £90m (H1 2018 £104m), including 2 new site openings and 206 conversions and remodels (H1 2018 220) |
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Adjusted free cash flowa of £23m (H1 2018 £(3)m) |
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Net debt reduced to £1.63bn (H1 2018 £1.72bn) representing 3.8 times adjusted EBITDAa (H1 2018 4.1 times) |
Phil Urban, Chief Executive, commented:
“This is a strong set of results, demonstrating that we continue to build momentum in the business, delivering sales growth, sustained market outperformanceb and a return to operating profit growth all while reducing leverage to below four times. This strong performance comes from the progress we continue to make in our three priority areas: building a more balanced business; instilling a more commercial culture; and driving an innovation agenda.
Success in this highly competitive market is dependent on a continuous stream of improvements, and that is what we are delivering with many small advances at site level driving significant benefits in aggregate. We will maintain our focus on these initiatives which we believe are transforming the business.“