A strong debtors’ book collection during a hard lockdown in between January and February managed to offset a difficult first quarter for clothing giant, Edgars Stores Limited.
Trading for this quarter was significantly affected by the Covid-19 lockdown as physical stores were closed for more than 7 weeks of the 13 weeks in the quarter.
Despite opening online stores the company recorded very little business due to delivery constraints during lockdown leading to year to date turnover for the quarter to 11 April 2021 dropping 17 percent.
“The debtors’ book collections kept the company going during lockdown as most of our credit customers paid their installments on time,” the company said.
Average collections from the debtors were 39.8 percent of the total book compared to 36.1 percent in December 2020 and 34.7 percent in September 2020.
“Lessons drawn from the 1st lockdown assisted the company in improving online payment platforms for our customers, hence a significant increase in collections during the 2nd lockdown compared to 2020 lockdown,” stated the company.
The company said its biggest constraint is low demand as a result of low disposable incomes of its customers in general.
Units sold for the year to date declined to 417,639 from 542,082 last year.
At Edgars Chain, year to date unit sales of 132,120 units were down 36.1 percent compared to the same period in 2020. Credit sales declined from 67.7 percent to 64.7 percent of total sales during the quarter compared to the previous year.
At Jet Chain, Unit sales of 188,249 units were down 42.2 percent for the period to date against 2020. Cash and credit sales contribution to total sales was consistent with prior year at 52 percent and 48 percent respectively.
At Carousel Manufacturing, Unit sales of 42,757 were up 298.6 percent compared to last year as a result of, “The factory remained open over the lockdown as it was classified as an essential service,” said the company.
