Crawshaw wields the cleaver after losses grow

Fresh meat and food-to-go retailer Crawshaw Group saw its shares rise on Wednesday as it announced action to reinvigorate the chain after a “disappointing” first half amid tough high street conditions.

The first six months ended 29 July saw the butchers lose £1.7m before tax, a 36% increase in loss compared to the same period last year, after revenue dropped by 2% to £21.6m compared to the same period.

The AIM traded company had cash and cash equivalents of £3.3m at 29 July, down from £6.8m at 30 July last year.

Jim Viggars, chief executive of Crawshaw, said: "Clearly the results for H1 are disappointing, but not entirely a surprise given market conditions and the issues that face a retail estate that has too many high street stores and currently not enough factory stores. However, the important issue is the future growth and profitably of Crawshaw."

Viggars added that the company’s management are moving to remedy key issues at pace, which he said will be achievable over the medium term despite declining numbers of high street shoppers and more competitive retail pricing.

Jim McCarthy, chairman of Crawshaw, said: "We recognise that some of our existing High Street stores are not core to our future growth. Our Factory store format is attractive to consumers and we intend to accelerate the growth of this proven model, constantly refining value, operational standards and the overall shopping experience that is key in driving sales and profitability."

As such, the company opened three new factory stores over the period and plans to open 10 more in both 2019/2020 and 2020/2021, with cash payback from each store estimated to be between 12 and 18 months.

Crawshaw is also trialling online and convenience retail channels, aiming to achieve such offerings at low cost in order to support the factory store format.

Crawshaw’s shares were up 23.85% at 4.02p at 1045 BST.