• Trading profit of £5.3m for the year ended 28 January 2019; up 11% on the equivalent period last year.
• Strong balance sheet with assets of £103m – record level in Society’s history
• Trading turnover increased by £4m to £378m
• Hottest summer in 40 years boosted trade and helped mitigate the impact of cost pressures
Scotmid Co-operative delivered a £5.3m trading profit for the year ended 28 January 2019; up £0.5m on the equivalent period last year.
This positive result, driven by strong sales figures from Scotmid’s food convenience business during the summer, was achieved in a period when the Society again faced into significant external cost increases plus the added uncertainty surrounding Brexit.
The society, which is scheduled to celebrate its 160-year anniversary in November, also confirmed the value of its net assets had risen to its highest ever level.
John Brodie, Chief Executive of Scotmid Co-operative said: “This strong result was achieved through the implementation of a range of continuous improvement initiatives and was boosted by the hottest summer in 40 years, all while operating with the background of a lacklustre economy, Brexit uncertainty and the cumulative burden of significant cost increases.
“The Society recorded turnover of £378m, an increase of £4m on the previous year, and is in a strong financial position with net assets at a record level of £103m.
“Our Scotmid food convenience business bore the brunt of the cost increases including business rates, energy and employment costs, but delivered a strong like-for-like sales performance assisted by range improvements and the favourable weather.
“The market conditions for Semichem were very poor, with the Scottish Retail Consortium reporting non-food sales down 2.2% (like-for-like) and Northern Ireland being particularly hard hit by the Brexit uncertainty with the potential for less cross-border trade.
“In this climate, Semichem did well to deliver an underlying result marginally down on last year with a number of trials underway and hard decisions taken. The funeral business had a mixed year but recovered to finish strongly. Scotmid Property delivered a record trading contribution and a positive asset valuation, benefiting from letting activity and successful property sales and re-investment in-line with our diversification strategy.
“In line with our core purpose, which is to serve our communities and improve people’s everyday lives, our membership initiative, Community Connect continues to grow – in the last cycle we awarded £75,000 to nine good cause groups across our trading areas in Scotland.
“Also in 2018, we awarded funding to nearly 1,200 local good cause groups through our Community Grant programme – enabling worthwhile projects to come to life.
“As we head towards our 160th anniversary on 4 November 2019, the Society will continue with the continuous improvement philosophy and focus on innovation, effective investment and tight control of costs to continue to make progress in an unforgiving and uncertain market.”
Click here for the Scotmid Annual Report 2019