| Tue 29 Apr 2003, 12:39 | | Tradehold executives optimistic after closures and |
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Consumer Industries Editor
CAPE TOWN Tradehold, the company controlled by SA entrepreneur Christo Wiese, is closing down and restructuring operations.
The firm holds interests in UK and Polish retail and property and posted a headline loss of 20,1c a share in the eight months to February 28 this year after a year of selling.
Tradehold and its UK-listed retail subsidiary, Brown & Jackson, which is its largest single investment, have changed financial year-ends to February from December.
In the past eight months the two groups have been restructured so that Brown & Jackson's operations have shrunk from four retail chains to one, Poundstretcher, the only profitable business.
Of the other three retail chains, two have been closed down, and Tradehold has agreed to sell control of Your More Store to a consortium including management.
After this deal, Tradehold's interests will include 54% of Brown & Jackson, 26% of Your More Store, 73 freehold properties in the UK with a value of UKP34,4m, and 16 stores in Poland. Tradehold said that as a result of the changes and the new year-end, it was impossible to compare the latest reporting period with last year.
The results showed group turnover was R3,4bn from continued operations in the eightmonth period on which a pretax loss of R590,9m was made.
This loss included R477m of exceptional items. The exceptional items were mainly substantial impairment and contractual costs in Brown & Jackson, irrecoverable loans and expenses from the two operations placed under administration, and impairment costs in Your More Store.
Brown & Jackson reported a 2,8% improvement in like-for- like sales from continuing operations for the 33 weeks to February 22.
Its pretax loss, including losses from discontinued businesses, halved to UKP23,1m from UKP46,9m for the preceding 53week period.
CE Angus Monro, who was appointed last September, has recruited new management and buyers, and introduced a new in-house design facility to give a unique stamp to the Poundstretcher products.
It is switching to more direct sourcing to save costs and modernising the stores.
A number of smaller outlets will be closed.
This will cost about UKP19,6m.
Monro said the group had made rapid progress and was now in a strong cash position, which bode d well for future growth of the company.
Tradehold chairman Christo Wiese said in an interview the increase in sales in Brown & Jackson was particularly encouraging against a background of disruption caused by the store modernisation programme as well as new ranges.
Brown & Jackson, he said, was a completely different business from a year ago, and that that he was "very confident" about the firm's prospects.
