Clothing chain Joules (JOUL) grew sales by 18 per cent to £186m over the 52 weeks ending 27 May 2018, prompting brokers to upgrade forecasts for the recently completed financial year. A strong first half and Christmas trading period continued throughout the year, helping retail, wholesale and e-commerce sales all increase into the second half. The group also opened a net 15 new stores during the year.
That was enough for some City analysts to upgrade full-year forecasts. Brokerage Liberum now expects underlying pre-tax profit of £12.8m for 2018 (up from £12.4m) and EPS of 11.6p (previously 11.3p). Based on S&P Capital IQ data, even prior to this announcement, forecast earnings for the next 12 months had been increased by over a fifth during the past year.
