Pepco prospers on major European expansion drive

By

Nigel TAYLOR

Published
Dec 14, 2021

To say Pepco Group is growing fast is an understatement. Opening 483 stores across Europe in just a year was the overriding reason why the owner of the Pepco, Poundland and Dealz discount retail brands produced a stellar sales numbers for the 12 months ending 31 September.

The group, which also owns the value-priced Pep&Co fashion range, saw overall sales leap 19.4% to €4.12 billion. Underlying like-for-like sales were also “strong”, up 6.5% overall with Pepco and Poundland comp sales up 9.8% and 3.1% respectively.

Core profits (EBITDA) drove 46% higher at €647 million, in line with guidance of €640 million-€655 million, while the gross profit margin increased by 220 bps (FY21 was 42.9% versus FY20’s lower 40.7%). This was “a return to FY19 levels, driven through markdown improvements and product mix despite a backdrop of supply chain headwinds”, it said.

Pepco, which listed on the Warsaw stock market in May with a valuation of €5 billion, now operates 3,504 stores across Europe and the UK/Ireland and said that apart from its continued drive to update stores (954 store renewals completed sop far) it has a “strong” new store pipeline for 2021-22 and beyond. 

And to help finance that continued expansion, the group said it has also completed its refinancing programme to "deliver our planned growth across Europe".