Heavy discounting during the 13 weeks ended August 29th resulted in an EBITDA fall of 44 per cent year on year to £28.5 million at Matalan. Its total sales had fallen by 3.9 per cent for the period which was heavily impacted by the early effect of Covid-19 and the resultant need to sell off Spring stock.
“A key focus for us during the summer was selling through the surplus seasonal socks that we had brought out of the lockdown period, said Steve Johnson, Matalan’s executive chairman. “We achieved our objective of exiting the season with a healthy terminal stock position, comparable with previous years, accepting this action had a heavy impact on profits during the quarter.”
The business has warned that the second wave of Covid-19 and new government-imposed restrictions would put pressure on consumer behaviour in the coming months. However it said that it would be focused on near-term trading conditions and the enhancement of customer choice.
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