Last Updated on Monday, 24 April, 2023 at 5:53 pm by Andre Camilleri
The Convenience Shop (Holding) p.l.c. registered a profit before tax of €2.6 million for the year ended 31 December 2022, up 63% on the previous year, whilst noting that total Revenue, including both owned and franchise outlets, has increased by 18% to €74.5m when compared to €63.3m reported last year.
Commenting on these results, the Chief Executive Officer of The Convenience Shop (Holding) p.l.c., Martin Agius, stated that 2022 was a momentous year for the Convenience Shop Group –“Guided by our vision to be Malta’s retailer of choice in the convenience sector by providing a modern, reliable and customer-centric experience to our shoppers, our strategic priorities focused on increasing retail space growth and the Average Transaction Value (ATV) whilst simultaneously widening our category development and keeping rigorous control on cost and cash management. This aligns perfectly with our mission to make daily life easier for our customers through proximity, availability, and our caring team. Our strong performance for the year is also evidenced by an 11% increase in customer footfall, the takeover of two outlets and the opening of six new franchise outlets in 2022, highlighting the success of our franchise concept.”
“These significant achievements would not have been possible without the support of our dedicated people who are the Company’s primary driving force in the successful delivery of results,” added Mr Agius. The expansion of the franchise network momentum, together with higher customer reachability has also significantly contributed to this year’s strong financial performance.
During 2022, the Group generated a total net cash from operations of €3.5m, being €788k higher than prior year. Following a year of heavy investment in 2021, the Group has again invested €810k in the purchase of furniture, plant and equipment as well as intangible assets related to the acquisition of new outlets. Financing related cash outflows were mainly related to payments of lease liabilities of €1.2m, dividends paid amounting to €625k, interest payments of €441k and bank loan repayments of €141k. The Group continues to maintain its strong balance sheet with total assets amounting to €33.6m. Current liquid assets remained at €7.7m in line with last year, mainly comprising of stock for resale amounting to €3.2m, trade and other receivables of €3.4m and cash and cash equivalents of €1.2m. Current liabilities decreased by 7% from €11.3m to €10.6m primarily due to the full settlement of tax balance from the Covid era and tight control on supplier credit terms. This helped improve the Group’s liquidity or current ratio by 4.6 percentage points over last year.
Ben Muscat, Chairperson of The Convenience Shop (Holding) p.l.c. concluded that: “undoubtedly, 2022 has been a successful year, despite facing challenges associated with the post-COVID recovery period exacerbated by international political turmoil, inflationary pressures and supply chain disruptions. Our focused strategy enabled us to weather the prevailing inflationary environment resulting mainly from global supply chain disruptions following the Covid pandemic and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine dispute. In spite of the effect of the foregoing, we remain highly competitive whilst retaining focus on business growth, customer-centricity, and corporate governance. Having now weathered ‘the storm’, we believe that we are now well-positioned to capitalise on the opportunities that lie ahead.”
