UK: Thorntons upbeat despite profit fall

By: just-food.com | 9 September 2009

UK chocolate maker Thorntons said today (9 September) that it was "pleased" with its sales growth over the last 12 months despite annual profits falling by over 4%.

The company reported a 4.5% fall in pre-tax profits to GBP8.1m (US$13.4m) even with revenues climbing 3.2% to GBP214.8m.

Chief executive Mike Thorntons said the company, which generates 40% of its sales in the three months around Christmas, was impacted by the "peak" of the financial crisis occurring around the festive period.

"From a retail perspective, the peak of the crisis, in the eight to ten weeks before Christmas, could not have hit us at a worse time, as historically 40% of Thorntons' annual sales and most of its profits are generated during the Christmas quarter," Davies said. "This reinforces the importance of our long term goal to reduce our financial dependency on Christmas."

Davies said Thorntons had managed to reduced its operating losses in the second half of its fiscal year and added that the company hoped to reopen "most" of the franchise concessions lost when key partner Birthdays was placed into administration in May.

Sectors: Confectionery, Retail

Companies: Thorntons