Shares have risen in early trading at North East sofa specialist SCS after directors issued a strong update, putting expectations ahead of forecasts.
The Sunderland based soft furnishings and flooring firm, which has 100 stores across the UK, said it has been encouraged by the strong trading performance since reopening, putting the group is in a strong position as it enters the new financial year.
It said the current and previous financial year’s figures have been knocked by the impact of lockdowns during the pandemic, which led to the closure of its stores.
Read more: Greggs on a roll as sales top pre-pandemic levels
In a stock market note the firm said: “The next few months still hold a level of uncertainty, with the tone of Government messaging at present being one of caution. However, given recent trading and the strength of the current order book, the board’s expectations for FY21 and FY22 are ahead of current market forecasts.”
It said performance has been strong since stores reopened and its final seven weeks has seen strong performance, seeing like-for-like order growth of 23.7% compared to 2019.
Despite stores being closed for 17 weeks during the 2021 financial year, it said its full year like-for-like order intake was only down by 6.5% compared to 2019.
As of July 31 2021, the group’s order book was £103.5m, £1.2m lower than 2020 - which was buoyed by strong pent up demand when stores finally reopened in May 2020 after the first national lockdown – but £60.6m higher than at the same point in 2019.
At the year end it had £87.7m in cash and no debt.
Shares were up 5.55 to 306.01p in early trading and the group will publish its preliminary results in October.
