Crawshaw Group (AIM:CRAW) – shares continue to defy gravity and logic for some!
The update from the high flying “fresh meat and food to go retailer” was reassuring, although hardly spectacular given the stratospheric rating of this expanding former butcher.
In the 8 weeks since the Chairman’s last statement on the 23rd April, like for like sales for the extended group are up a modest 2.3% (full year ending 31st January 2015 was +5%) , building further on the increase of a marginally better 6.4% achieved over the same period last year. Management comments on the strong trading performance spread across the combined store portfolio and they have seen positive growth in both customer numbers and average spend. It’s all mildly encouraging but the numbers suggest less meaningful growth from the existing store portfolio, surely implying there is nothing special…