South African retailer Lewis reports a surge in annual profit

Source: www.unsplash.com

The furniture and appliances retailer said headline earnings per share, the main profit measure in South Africa, rose to 616.5 cents in the year ended March 31, up from 260.2 cents a year earlier, also reflecting the benefit of a share buy-back programme.

Lewis declared a final dividend of 195 cents per share, up from 65 cents.

By 7.24am GMT, its shares were up 5.54%.

Merchandise sales recovered strongly after stores reopened in June 2020 following a two month lockdown. After declining by 4.9% in the first half of the year, sales grew by 17% in the second half to post an annual increase of 6.7% to R3.9bn ($284.64m).

The growth was driven by cash sales which increased by 25.9%, with credit sales declining by 7.9% as a result of the hard April to May lockdown period.

Sales were also supported by new ranges introduced in the second half of the year and high levels of stock availability.

According to the Lewis Group, its debtor's book continued to improve during the year, with the level of satisfactory paid customers increasing from 70.5% in 2020 to 74.4% in 2021, while collection rates recovered steadily after lockdown.