Shoe Zone PLC – SHOE – Interim Results

·       Revenue of £68.9m (2019 H1: £73.0m)

·       Year to February revenue growth of 2.6%

·       Statutory profit before tax of £(2.5)m (2019 H1: £1.0m)

·       Net cash of £3.6m (2019 H1: £3.3m) inclusive of the immediate measures taken to maintain cash balances at the end of March.

·       Statutory earnings per share of (4.1)p (2019 H1: 1.65p)

·       No interim dividend to be paid (2019 H1: 3.5p per share)

·       Operating from 47 Big Box locations at period end contributing £9.4m (2019: £5.5m) revenue in H1

·       Digital sales increased by 31.9% to £6.5m (2019 H1: £5.0m) achieving profit contribution of £1.9m (2019 H1: £1.5m)

·       Over 1.4 million engaged users on Shoezone.com database

·       All retail stores closed on 24 March 2020.

·       416 stores in England, Northern Ireland and ROI re-opened by 15 June 2020 in line with the government guidelines.

·       Wales will open on 28 June and Scotland will start to open on 29 June.

·       Digital team and the Distribution Centre continued to operate throughout

·       Immediate action was taken to reduce cash outflows including negotiations with landlords and suppliers, cancellation of final dividend, furloughing the majority of employees and utilising government tax deferment schemes.

·       CBILS loan of £15m secured of which £10m has been drawn down to date.

·       Additional financial impacts post the balance sheet date not included in the Interim Results are £0.9m write down of Freehold Asset values and £0.3m redundancy costs incurred as a result of a Head Office rationalisation programme.  The total impact of these is £1.2m.

·       A review of the viability of all stores continues post exit from lockdown.