Member Article

Mixed bag of results for Thorntons

High street chocolatier Thorntons says its commercial sales for the year to June 28 increased by 7.9% but also reported a 5.6% slump in retail sales.

The brand closed 11 stores during its fourth quarter and 36 over the full year period.

Consumer Direct sales decreased by 2.0%, accounting for just over 2% of total revenue and franchise sales declined by £0.1 million.

Jonathan Hart, Thorntons’ chief executive, commented: “We are pleased to report a positive overall performance across the business for the year and anticipate profit to be in line with market expectations.

“Our FMCG division returned to growth during the quarter as a result of a strong performance in our UK Commercial channel. In line with previous periods, we saw no signs of improvement in consumer spending on the High Street during this quarter, which is our shortest and smallest quarter and accounts for around 10% of full year sales.

“The marketplace remains competitive and, in line with our strategy, we continue to focus on the profitability of the business which has improved considerably over the past three years. We are on track with our store closure programme which is focused on delivering a sustainable retail estate and remain confident that our strategy is the right one.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .