Excellent trading across the business, coupled with a strategy over the last three years to grow the account base and store space, saw Truworths International Ltd post a 33% increase in headline and basic earnings per share for the 52 weeks to 24 June 2007.
While the group’s retail and franchise sales increased by 27% to N$4.86 billion, headline and basic earnings per share rose to 248,6 cents from 186,4 cents. The return on equity improved by 6% to 50% and the net asset value per share was 26% better at 555 cents.

A final dividend of 60 cents per share brought the total payout for the 2007 period to 120 cents, 35 % more than in 2006. Dividend cover was maintained at 2.1 times headline earnings per share.
CEO Michael Mark said sales growth included comparable store sales growth of 17% with product inflation of 3.9%. Trading space increased by 12% through the opening of 16 Truworths emporiums, 23 Identity stores, two Young Designer Emporium (YDE) stores and five Uzzi stores, bringing this male fashion chain to 30 stores.
“Our growth strategy has worked extremely well in that profits have grown significantly, while margins, volumes and market share in all major categories have increased, “ he said.
Mark said the group’s active account base had grown to 1.7 million accounts, with the Truworths debtors’ book up 33% during the period. Group credit sales represented 73% of total group retail sales.