North East pawnbroker Ramsdens has raised its profit guidance for the year after seeing strong trading over the Christmas period.
The Middlesbrough-headquartered financial services firm – also a shirt sponsor for Middlesbrough FC – published a trading update in which it said its delivered strong trading during the Christmas period, with each of the group’s key business segments performing ahead of the prior year.
As a result, the board now expects full year profit before tax to be comfortably ahead of market expectations.
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The firm said profits derived from the purchase of precious metals segment had been higher than anticipated, reflecting the high gold price, while its pawnbroking and foreign currency segments had continued to produce good results.
Its jewellery retail division had done well in store and online, with the Christmas period bringing double digit revenue growth.
New jewellery sales also increased significantly year-on-year over the festive period, with sales of premium watch brands such as Rolex and Breitling and its second-hand jewellery pieces seeing strong growth.
In interim results announced at the end of last year, the group said it had taken the decision to scrap some slower moving jewellery stock to capitalise on the gold price.
The board now anticipates reporting a one-off profit contribution from stock scrapping of around £800,000 for the full financial year, which includes the £600,000 one-off profit contribution previously announced.
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Peter Kenyon, CEO of Ramsdens, said: “We are encouraged by the strong momentum across the business and, as a result, the board now anticipates full year profits will be comfortably ahead of current market expectations.
“We are very pleased with the performance of our jewellery retail business over Christmas, both in store and online.
“This reflects the growing reach and recognition of Ramsdens as a jewellery retailer, and the appeal of our new jewellery products, premium watches and unique second-hand pieces as great value Christmas gifts.
“We look forward to updating our stakeholders further following the end of our financial year.”
The group operates from 161 stores within the 海角视频, including four franchised stores, and in the last financial year served more than 830,000 customers across its different services.