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Significant growth comes from Debenhams' designers

01 Nov '06

2 min read

Debenhams plc announces its' Preliminary Results for the 52 weeks ended 2 September 2006.

Financial Highlights
- Turnover up 6.6% at £2.19 billion
- Underlying trading profit before exceptional items 3 up 21.2% at £267.4 million
- Profit before tax and exceptional items up 67.9% at £112.8 million
- 2.4p dividend per share
- Net Debt down to £1.11 billion

Business Highlights
- Accelerated pipeline of 24 contracted new department stores creating approximately 6,000 new jobs.
- Six new department stores opened
- Four Desire by Debenhams stores opened.
- Nine stores acquired in the Republic of Ireland from Roches Stores.
- Continued success with Designers at Debenhams ranges, new ranges launched from Jasper Conran, Julien Macdonald and Betty Jackson.
- Gross margins improved through sourcing initiatives and own-bought sales participation increasing.

Rob Templeman, Chief Executive, said: “For the first seven weeks of the new financial year the retail climate has been volatile, impacted by the unseasonably warm weather."

Total sales are up by +7.0% compared with the comparable period last year with like-for-like sales down by -4.2%% in the seven weeks.

Our expectation is that margins will continue to improve during the year.

We are also confident that the rigorous delivery of our strategy together with the store expansion programme will drive future growth for our shareholders.

These first full-year results as a publicly-listed company once again demonstrate the strength and resilience of Debenhams as we continue to deliver on our plans to grow the business profitably.

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