Flower cuts keep Flying on target

Published on Wednesday 13 January 2010 20:42

FLYING Brands, the home shopping group part-owned by Scots entrepreneur Sir Tom Hunter, expects to beat market estimates for full-year profit, helped by cost cuts.

The Jersey-based company yesterday said sales from continuing operations were down 27 per cent at 6.6 million for the three months to 1 January.

Sales from the firm's Flying Flowers division in the peak Christmas trading period were in line with market expectations. The operation reported sales of 3.6m for the three months.

In October, the group said it planned to shift its flower packing and dispatch for its postal range to the UK from Jersey.

This move was completed successfully, it said yesterday.

Chief executive Stephen Cook said: "We are very pleased that Flying Flowers was able to meet expectations in one of its peak trading periods for the first time in several years.

"Our cost base has been realigned with the current size of the group and we will focus efforts on growing revenue, customer numbers and profits in our core brands in 2010."

Flying started in Jersey in the early 1980s as a service for tourists to send flowers to friends and relatives at home. Hunter's West Coast Capital has a near 30 per cent stake in the business.