Shares in egg-free fresh cream cakes franchisor Cake Box (CBOX:AIM) surged 10% to 370p on Monday, marking an all-time high for the stock after the company posted a 91% increase in first-half revenues through September to £16.4 million.
To provide a cleaner picture of underlying performance and exclude any overlap with the past lockdowns, the company flagged that over the last four months revenues grew 50% year-on-year to £11.1 million.
Over this period franchises generated 13% higher revenues on a like-for-like basis, that is from stores which were open for at least a year.
STRONG ONLINE GROWTH
The company saw strong growth in its online delivery channel through third-party platforms including Uber Eats, Just Eat and Deliveroo, driving franchisee online revenues up 68% to £6.7 million in the first half.
Demand for the Cake Box proposition appears undiminished despite the general economic uncertainty as demonstrated by the company opening 20 new sites in the half, taking the total number of locations to 174 at 30 September.
In addition, the company said it was holding 62 deposits from potential new franchisees.
NEW FORMAT SHOWING POTENTIAL
Cake Box also continued to roll out its kiosk offer from existing franchised stores with new sites opened in the Arndale and Trafford Centres in Manchester, while it also expanded a trial with a major supermarket chain to seven sites, taking the total number of kiosks to 29.
Unlike many companies which have reported supply chain issues over recent months, Cake Box seems to be coping well according to chief executive Sukh Chamdal: ‘Our supply chain is robust, with several months of ingredients and the right measures in place to ensure that no event goes uncelebrated and no slice of cake goes unbaked, undelivered or uneaten.’
The company said it was confident in meeting full-year expectations. Consensus analyst forecasts see revenues growing 28% to £28 million with net profit up 44% to £4.8 million, according to Refinitiv data.
