Beaverbrooks has announced its financial results for the year ending 25 February 2017. The company maintained an annual turnover of £119m, following a five per cent increase in the previous period.
Operating profit before discretionary payments was £12.2m, compared to £15.2m in the 2015/16 period.
Net assets and equity shareholders’ funds both grew in the period, with Beaverbrooks increasing its stock holding by 13 per cent to accommodate two new stores within its estate.
The 98-year-old business also donates 20 per cent of post-tax and post distribution profits to its charitable trust, and has this year donated £1.076m to charity.
As part of its mission to ‘enrich lives’, all 940 employees are encouraged to support time-giving initiatives and 1,533 hours were paid to facilitate volunteering in 2016/17.
In addition, 29 per cent of its employees were involved in Workplace Giving at the year-end (now 34 per cent). Beaverbrooks is the UK’s top jewellery retailer and second biggest supporter of the scheme on the high street. During the period, Beaverbrooks’ employees gave £29,069 through payroll giving. The net donation was then matched by the company resulting in total donations of £51,000.
Mark Adlestone OBE DL, Chairman of Beaverbrooks, said: “This period stands out as one with the most competitive trading conditions, so we were pleased to maintain turnover. We were adversely affected by the weakness of Sterling following Brexit. We hadn’t anticipated this happening and therefore didn’t hedge accordingly and so this, alongside increasing precious metal prices, resulted in additional costs that impacted directly on gross profit.
“Despite these pressures, we’ve continued our investment programme, opening two new stores in Straiton (in Edinburgh) and Westfield Stratford (in East London), refurbishing existing retail stores and investing in our website to enhance our online customer experience. We also invested significantly in our people through training and furthering our performance linked bonus structure.”
Anna Blackburn, CEO of Beaverbrooks, said: “We’ve just had the three most profitable years in our history and have featured in The Sunday Times Best Companies to Work For list for 14 consecutive years. We believe that our people-centric approach and focus on quality products and excellent customer service, is key to our financial success.
“As we look towards another busy Christmas period, we’re delighted that our colleagues will be able to spend quality time with their loved ones as we close our doors on Boxing Day, a tradition we’re proud to have maintained throughout our entire trading history.”
