Pepco continues to “win customers and market share” in H1 results

Pepco Group, the owner of Poundland and Pep&Co, today announced "encouraging" growth in H1 and welcomed Neil Galloway to his role as Group Chief Financial Officer.

The discount retailer published a trading update for the second financial quarter of the fiscal year 2023, ending 31 March 2023. Despite "inflationary pressures", H1 Group revenue was up by 22.8% to £2.5 billion (€2.84 billion), driven by strong Pepco growth (36.9%).

H1 Group like-for-like revenues were up 11.1% in H1, with Q2 like-for-like revenues up by 8.5%.

Poundland saw revenues boosted by 4.9% in H1 compared to the year prior. Though positive, Pep&Co takes the cake with impressive revenues up by 15% in H1 year-on-year and up 10.7% compared to Q2.

Trevor Masters, CEO of Pepco Group, commented: "Pepco has recorded an encouraging second-quarter trading performance against the backdrop of a continuing inflationary environment for both customers and the business. Demand for our products remains strong, and double-digit like-for-like revenue growth demonstrates solid progress for the Group.

"While the consumer environment remains challenging due to inflationary pressures, our strategy of price leadership gives us continued conviction in our ability to win customers and market share, which we have grown in our key markets over the last quarter."

Within the first six months of 2023, the business is set to open 166 net new stores.

Masters continued: "For the first time, the number of net new store openings in western Europe, including our 100th store in Italy, outweighed the number of openings in central Europe across the quarter. This is a strategically important milestone for the group and the continued positive consumer response to our proposition across those markets demonstrates the whole of Europe is addressable to us."