Quiz PLC on Thursday said its profit jumped and revenue was up in its financial year, but it has a gloomy short-term outlook.
Shares in Quiz, a Glasgow, Scotland-based retailer, dropped by 11% to 9.45 pence in London on Wednesday.
Quiz said its pretax profit in the year ended March 31 jumped to £2.3 million from £800,000.
Revenue was up 17% to £91.7 million from £78.4 million.
Quiz hailed ‘efficient cost control’ during the financial year. Expenses rose at a slower pace than revenue did, ‘despite the significant inflationary pressures experienced during the year’.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization were up by 21% to £6.2 million from £5.1 million.
Chief Executive Officer Tarak Ramzan said: ‘The past year once again demonstrated the benefits of the group’s omni-channel model as we saw encouraging revenue growth across stores and online.
‘The group is continuing to focus on achieving its online growth potential through its website and we were encouraged by the increase in sales and active customers during the year.’
Quiz did not recommend a dividend payment in its financial year, unchanged from last year.
‘The business will remain focused on delivering a sustainable profitable performance, subject to which the board would anticipate reinstating dividend payments,’ said Chair Peter Cowgill.
The company set out a somewhat drab outlook.
‘Consistent with many other fashion and clothing retailers, year-on-year growth has moderated this calendar year as inflationary pressures continue to impact consumer confidence. As a result of these external headwinds as well as the strong prior year comparatives which benefited from increased demand as social restrictions ceased, like-for-like revenues in recent months have been lower than the previous year,’ Quiz said.
Revenue in the first three months of the new financial year has been largely in line with pre-Covid levels on a like-for-like basis.
In the long term, the company said it remained confident it will deliver sustainable and profitable growth.
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