Finance Analysis on Peacock

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 Company Background

Cardiff-based Peacock was founded in 1882 as Peacock's Penny Bazaar. Nowadays, it is a public group company in UK that operates more than 700 stores throughout the country under three distinct national brands: the Peacocks, Bonmarché and The Fragrance Shop (Fashionunited, 2005)

Peacock is one of major value-for-money retailers, which offers fashion and discountable products for customers, under FTSE Mid 250 Index in UK high street (3). In the year to the end of March, the company’s annual sale is increased to £548.172m and its market capital is up to £401.41m in 2005 (Citywire, 2005).

The Peacock Group’s principal business activities are selling a range of clothing for the family and household textiles, and its three major brands focus on different areas.

Peacocks

Peacocks made excellent progress this year, and its product range across all their categories: fashion clothing (Womenswear, Menswear, and Childrenswear), homeware, footwear and some fashion accessories (Peacock Annual Report p6-7, 2005).

Bonmarché

The performance at Bonmarché continued to disappoint, and then the company is making more use of freelance designers and fashion forecasters and divides its range into three categories: classic for the 55+ age group, contemporary for the 50-65 age group and fashion for the 45-55 group (Peacock Annual Report p11, 2005).

The Fragrance Shop

The Fragrance Shop had outstanding performance and accelerated the company’s expansion. It mainly sells virtually all the top fragrance brands in prime locations at value prices (Peacock Annual Report p12, 2005).

The turnover of the company originated in the UK, and its turnover and results for the overseas sales are not material. Therefore, no separate segmental analysis has been provided (Peacock Annual Report p41, 2005).

The UK high street is today dominated by a small number of super powerful retailers (more so than anywhere else in the world) with only a handful of major...