Companies: CC.   

Shares in Clinton Cards rose to their highest level in more than two years on a strong set of figures for the year to January. The results showed a near 11% rise in pre-tax profits to £19.7m on turnover of £289.25m (£268.8m). Finance director Barry Hartog professed to being happy with the figures. He asserted that 'there's still plenty of room for growth'. The improvement was attributed to the constant re-evaluation of its store portfolio. At year-end Clinton traded from 672 outlets, four fewer than 12 months earlier. Hartog explained that some stores had been closed and others relocated in a bid to improve quality. Despite the drop in the number of stores, Clinton was selling from 1.08m sq ft of trading space compared with 1.06m sq ft in January 2000. If all goes to plan, the company expects to have 700 stores in operation by the end of the year, and 800 by the end of 2006. At the end of the year Clinton had £33.7m (£17.6m) of cash in the bank to help fund the expansion. House broker Beeson Gregory forecast further growth this year, with £23m profit before tax and goodwill on £299.2m of sales, with earnings of 23.5p. This puts Clinton on a still attractive forward p/e of 7.8.