Sanderson Group delivered another upbeat trading update this morning, continuimg the ascent it has been on since its move to refinance last year and sell its RBS division to Torex (now part of Micros) early this year for £11.7m. The company says it has nailed analyst expectations and is slightly ahead of forecasts for the year to September 30 2012. Its focus on the multi channel retail and ecommerce sectors has been rewarded with a 10%+ increase in overall sales order intake for the year, including a 15% increase in sales orders from the multi-channel business which includes online sales and ecommerce offerings. It ended the previous year with a slight dip on revenue to £26.4m (see Sanderson hits the mark in full year), but the market is forecasting c£13.8m for the year ending September 2012. The cash balance is up by £4m. Earlier this month the share price rose 21% in one day (and has hovered around the peak since), aided by a report in the Investors Chronicle lauding Sanderson and the prospects surrounding ecommerce.
Developments such as warehouse automation and mobile applications shows the company is actively developing to take advantage of the rising demand by customers to buy what they want, when and how they want, although the investment could have the effect of reducing margins. The detailed results, due November 27, will make interesting reading.