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Luxury watch retailer Watches of Switzerland has entered into a new £45m facility agreement as part of the government Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme as it reported the final six weeks of the financial year to 26 April 2020 had been 'significantly impacted' by COVID-19.
In its financing update and unaudited pre-close trading update for the 13 and 52 weeks ending 26 April 2020, the company said all of its stores were closed as a result of 'containment measures', with US stores closing on 19 March 2020 and UK stores closing on 23 March through the end of the financial year.
During the period following the closure of stores, Watches of Switzerland said that ecommerce had performed 'particularly well', and that sales from this channel increased 45.8% during the last six weeks of the financial year, with a further acceleration during the month of April, when sales increased by 82.8% relative to the same prior year period.
The company reported that FY2020 group revenue increased 5.9% to £819.3m, ahead of recently revised guidance range.
It announced strong trading during the first 46 weeks to 15 March 2020 (pre-lockdown), with group revenue up 15.8%, across both UK (up 9.4%) and US (up 36.4%), driven by luxury watches which grew 19.3% versus the prior year.
UK sales for the 52 weeks to 26 April 2020 rose 0.6% to £591.6m and US sales for the same period increased 22.9% to £227.7m.
It confirmed that the new £45m facility agreement has a maturity of November 2021 and the total available facilities in place as of 13 May 2020 are approximately £265m.
Chief executive Brian Duffy said: 'Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, the group had been on track to deliver double-digit sales growth, reflecting our strong brand partnerships, favourable market conditions and accelerating momentum in the US.
'Despite the current challenges, demand for luxury watches has remained strong with online sales performance ahead of our expectations. Through our longstanding partnerships with the most prestigious Swiss watch brands, we have further enhanced the online customer experience with the introduction of additional brands which we had previously only transacted in our stores.'
At 9:19am: (LON:WOSG) Watches Of Switzerland Group PLC share price was +4p at 224.5p