Just For Pets, Wynnstay's (WYN) retail business that catered to furry friends, has become the latest victim of the consumer spending squeeze. The pet supplies retailer went into administration after weaker sterling pushed up input costs, and subsequent price increases didn’t go over well with customers. Group chief executive Ken Greetham said it tried to sell the pet business, but there weren't any buyers prepared to take on the business's long-term property leases. The closure cost Wynnstay £6.59m, and contributed to an 84 per cent crash in reported pre-tax profit to £1.15m.
In better news, Wynnstay has witnessed a recovery in the agricultural market. Mr Greetham said the past few years had been the worst for some time, but weak sterling had acted as a catalyst for a recovery in milk, grain and beef prices. This means farmers have been more inclined to buy Wynnstay’s feed and animal nutrition products, helping push profit from that business up 11 per cent to £3.34m.
Analysts at Shore Capital expect pre-tax profit of £8.2m in the year to October 2018, giving EPS of 33.9p, compared with £7.9m and 33.1p in FY2017.
| WYNNSTAY (WYN) | ||||
| ORD PRICE: | 478p | MARKET VALUE: | £94.1m | |
| TOUCH: | 470-485p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 679p | LOW: 453p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 1.8% | PE RATIO: | 15 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 433p | NET CASH: | £4.5m | |
| Year to 31 Oct | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
| 2013 | 413 | 8.0 | 36.4 | 9.3 |
| 2014 | 414 | 8.5 | 35.3 | 10.2 |
| 2015 | 377 | 8.3 | 34.7 | 11.1 |
| 2016 (restated) | 354 | 7.2 | 29.7 | 12.0 |
| 2017 | 391 | 7.7 | 32.3 | 12.6 |
| % change | +10 | +6 | +9 | +5 |
| Ex-div: | 2 Apr | |||
| Payment: | 30 Apr |
