Thornton's Reports Good Sales Growth

Total Company sales continued the positive trend in the fourth quarter achieving overall growth of 16.8% to £28.6m (7.9% if compared to the 11 week Q4 in 2006/07 which included a 53rd week).

17/07/08 Thorntons PLC has reported on its trading progress for the 10 weeks up to and including Saturday 28 June 2008.

Total Company sales continued the positive trend in the fourth quarter achieving overall growth of 16.8% to £28.6m (7.9% if compared to the 11 week Q4 in 2006/07 which included a 53rd week).  Full year sales of £208.1 million were 11.9% higher than last year.

Own store sales increased by 8.2% in the 10 week period to £18.7m and by 4.6% for the full year to £135.1m.  Like for like sales in the fourth quarter increased by 3.6% against a strong comparative performance last year of 7.2% growth.

Franchise sales showed an increase of 6.0% to £1.7m in the period and 14.5% for the full year at £14.9m.

Commercial sales grew by 47.0% to £7.0m in the quarter and by 33.8% in the full year.

Sales in Thorntons Direct were up by 44.3% to £1.2m in the quarter resulting in full year growth of 26.6%.

Mike Davies, Thorntons Chief Executive, commented: “We are pleased to be able to report good sales growth for the seventh consecutive quarter. The improvements in the quality of our offer underpin the sustained progress that we have achieved across all sales channels. We are confident that the Company’s performance for the full year ended June 2008 will be in line with expectations.”

“Going forward, we will continue to focus on our growth strategy based on product innovation, modernising our stores and improving customer service. We expect input costs to remain high, but have mitigated the likely impact on the business in the current financial year through increased pricing across all our product ranges.”

Thorntons will announce its preliminary results for the year ended 28th June 2008 on 10th September.