Wynnstay Group Plc announce interim results for six months to 30th April 2008

Key Points

• Turnover rose by 46% to £116.46m (2007: £79.9m)

• Operating profit rose by 55% to £3.33m (2007: £2.15m)

• Pre-tax profit rose by 51% to £2.958m (2007: £1.963m)

• Basic eps rose by 42% to 17.71p (2007: 12.43p)

• Net assets increased by 19% to £31.81m (2007: £26.83m)

• Interim dividend of 2.00p (2007: 1.875p)

• Agricultural businesses traded strongly, benefiting from diversified spread of activities - improved farm gate prices providing confidence to farmers, especially in arable and dairy sectors

• Country Stores performed well with good like-for-like growth

• Acquisition of pet superstores chain, Wilsons Pet Centres, in January 2008:
  - major step in establishing a large scale pet products retailing arm
  - three month contribution to results

• New chief executive, Ken Greetham, assumed position in May 2008

• Board remains confident about growth prospects for current year and beyond

Ken Greetham, Chief Executive, commented,

“Trading in the first six months of the financial year has been good across both our agricultural business and retail operations. These strong results reflect the strength of our diversified business model as well as the benefit of the acquisitions we made last year.

It is pleasing to see our Country Stores improve like-for-like sales, resulting from a combination of improved product range in our stores and greater discretionary spending by arable and dairy farmers.

The acquisition of pet superstores chain, Wilsons Pet Centres, in January, represented a major step forward in our objective to establish a large scale pet product retailing business. Trading across the pet stores to date has been very strong and appears to be highly resistant to the general downturn in consumer spending.

The general outlook for the business remains positive, with improved farm gate prices and emerging markets for agricultural produce giving a more promising outlook for the industry .

The business enjoys a strong financial base and we see good opportunities for continuing growth as we pursue our twin track strategy of acting as a consolidator in agricultural supplies and developing our retailing activities, especially in the pet products market.”

Download the full results announcement statement.
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