Pepco Group sees sales climb as it continues new store roll out

Pepco Group, owner of discount brands Pep&Co and Poundland, reported sales were up by 19.3% to £3,599 million (€4,209 million) in Q3, thanks to its "profitable store opening programme".

Today, the group published a trading update for the third financial quarter of FY23, ending 30 June 2023.

The group’s revenues were driven by Pepco’s growth of 29.3% and Poundland Group’s growth of 7.1%. Overall, group revenue stood at £1,171 million (€1,370 million) up by 12.5% year-on-year on a constant currency basis, with Pepco up by 15.3% and Poundland Group up by 8.6%.

Trading has recovered in recent weeks with a positive life-for-like (LFL) performance in June and the start of Q4. Poundland Group’s LFL was up 6.2% year-on-year and up 9% in Q3.

In the past nine months, Pepco opened 325 new stores, 159 of which opened in Q3. With this, it remains on track to open 550 net new stores by the end of 2023.

Trevor Masters, CEO of Pepco Group, commented: "The past quarter saw the Group make further strategic progress, with 159 net new stores launched as we continued to execute on our profitable store opening programme. We remain confident of meeting our target of opening at least 550 new stores this financial year, with openings weighted towards the fourth quarter.

"Pepco’s Q3 growth reflected a period where the business benefited from trading upside in the prior year driven by the influx of people from the Ukraine war into its core markets.

"We remain committed to supporting our customers in this challenging environment by maintaining our market-leading pricing. We continue to seek improvements in the cost of doing business and leveraging our in-house direct sourcing arm, PGS, which is a key competitive advantage for the Group. Our focus remains on building a bigger, better, cheaper and simpler business and we are well positioned to deliver future success as inflationary pressures ease."