Poundland owner reports positive growth of 12.5% in Q3
There have been 325 net new store openings in the nine months to date, including 159 in Q3, with the group on track to open 550 net new stores in FY23
Pepco Group, the owner of Poundland, has reported that third quarter revenues hit €1.37bn (£1.17bn), up by 12.5% year-on-year, with Poundland revenues up by 8.6% despite a “challenging” trading environment.
Poundland delivered a particularly strong trading performance in Q3, driven by consumers prioritising spend on FMCG items, with like-for-like revenues up 6.2% in the year to date, and up 9% in Q3.
In the year to date, nine-month Pepco Group revenues were up by 19.3% to €4.2bn (£3.6bn), driven by Pepco growth of 29.3% and Poundland growth of 7.1%.
According to Pepco Group, there have been 325 net new store openings in the nine months to date, including 159 in Q3, with the group on track to open 550 net new stores in FY23. Poundland saw 18 net new store openings during the period, largely reflecting the growth of Dealz, which opened 31 new stores in Poland.
Following its latest results, the group said it maintains its previous guidance on the full year EBITDA outlook, and expects to achieve FY23 EBITDA growth in the midteens on a constant currency basis.
Trevor Masters, CEO of Pepco Group, said: “The past quarter saw the group make further strategic progress, with 159 net new stores launched as we continued to execute on our profitable store opening programme. We remain confident of meeting our target of opening at least 550 new stores this financial year, with openings weighted towards the fourth quarter.
“As we highlighted at our interim results in June, the macro-economic climate continues to be challenging, particularly in Central Europe, due to elevated levels of inflation. In addition, Pepco’s Q3 growth reflected a period where the business benefited from trading upside in the prior year driven by the influx of people from the Ukraine war into its core markets.”
He added: “Poundland Group delivered a strong trading performance in Q3, driven by consumers prioritising spend on FMCG items. Both Pepco and Poundland Group are in positive LFL growth at the start of Q4.
“We remain committed to supporting our customers in this challenging environment by maintaining our market leading pricing. We continue to seek improvements in the cost of doing business and leveraging our in-house direct sourcing arm, PGS, which is a key competitive advantage for the group. Our focus remains on building a bigger, better, cheaper and simpler business and we are well positioned to deliver future success as inflationary pressures ease.”
