Revenue for the nine month period grew by 4% and merchandise sales by 3%. This is an improvement on the revenue growth of 1.6% and merchandise sales decline of 3.5% reported for the six months ended September 2014.
The improved trading for the quarter ended December 2014 was driven by higher levels of promotional activity and the contribution from the newly acquired Beares stores during December.
The group's revenue for the quarter increased by 8% and merchandise sales by 12%. Owing to the increased promotional activity to stimulate sales in response to the ongoing stock clearances in Ellerines (under business rescue), the group's gross profit is slightly below the level of last year.
Debtor costs have shown further improvement. Debtor costs for the nine months to end December 2014 increased by 25% on the corresponding period, below the increase of 27% reported at the half year in September.
The financial information in this trading update has not been reviewed or reported on by the group's independent auditors.