ScS sitting pretty despite House of Fraser hit and poor summer

SOFA CHAIN ScS has shrugged off a hit from its House of Fraser concessions and poor summer sales to post an 11 per cent rise in annual profits.

The retailer said its 27 concessions within struggling House of Fraser stores had a “particularly challenging year”, with gross sales in the division tumbling 9.4 per cent to £24.8m in the year to July 28.

It is in discussions with Sports Direct over the future of the concessions after Mike Ashley’s sportswear giant bought the department store out of administration.

Despite lower sales and earnings in the concessions, ScS posted a 10.5 per cent rise in full year pre-tax profits to £13.2m.

It also overcame a 2.6 per cent slide in second half sales caused by lower demand amid the heatwave and World Cup football tournament.

ScS said like-for-like orders rose 0.2 per cent over the year as a whole.

It added that sales since the year end had also picked up, rising by 2.1 per cent on a like-forlike basis in the nine weeks to September 29.

David Knight, chief executive of ScS, said: “The downturn in sales in our House of Fraser concessions has been more than offset by growth in our core ScS business.

“This has been aided by record results from our online channel, which has seen a 22.6 per cent increase in gross sales.”

But the group acknowledged it has been a “particularly difficult time” for the 124 staff in its House of Fraser concessions, which continue to be impacted by trading woes. ScS said it was in talks with Sports Direct “with a view to agreeing a mutually beneficial arrangement”.