Companies: CC.   

Shares in Clinton Cards gained 8 per cent to 183.5p today, their highest level in more than two years, on a strong set of figures for the year to January, showing a near-11 per cent rise in pre-tax profits to £19.65 million on turnover of £289.25 million (£268.83 million). Elliott Davis reports.

Finance director Barry Hartog unsurprisingly professes to be happy with the figures, although he also asserts that 'there's still plenty of room for growth'. He attributes the improvement to the constant re-evaluation of fully listed Clinton's (CC.) store portfolio conducted by management.

At year-end Clinton traded from 672 outlets, four fewer than 12 months earlier. Hartog explains that some stores had been closed and others re-located in a bid to improve the quality of the trading outlets and 'keep our customers happy'.

Despite this drop in the number of stores, at year-end, Clinton was selling from 1.08 million sq. ft of trading space, compared with 1.06 million 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.

The number of stores should hit 800 by the end of 2006. Some £33.7 million (£17.6 million) of cash sits in the bank to help fund this expansion.

Seymour Pierce analyst Rhys Williams comments that 'overall, Clinton Cards has beaten expectations'. He has, however, slightly downgraded his profit forecasts for the current year and now expects a £24.6 million profit before tax and goodwill, with earnings of 24.3p.

This puts Clinton on an undemanding prospective p/e ratio of 7.6.