By Vera von Lieres

Cape Town - Complementing the stylish performance of Woolworths, its former cousin in the Wooltru stable, fashion retailer Truworths International yesterday overshot the majority market consensus with a chic full-year showing.

Although the numbers were released late in the day, the share price reflected positive sentiment by bouncing 1.3 percent higher on the news to R8.

Against expectations of a rise in headline earnings a share of about 31 percent, Truworths delivered a 35 percent jump to 85.7c in the year to June and pegged its annual dividend 54.5 percent higher at 21c - a significant rise.

Net income romped 32.6 percent higher to R390.9 million on an 18.2 percent rise in turnover to R2.5 billion.

Chief executive Michael Mark said the buoyant retail trading in the second half of the last financial year ran through until October, followed by a slowdown in most merchandise categories due to factors such as softer consumer demand.

Despite this slowdown, which continued into the first and second quarters of the year, like-for-like sales growth at Truworths was well ahead of the estimated average for the clothing, footwear and textiles sector.  

Financial director Wayne van der Merwe highlighted the "star" performance of Truworths Man, which gained market share. Truworths Ladies maintained its position, while casual street gear chain Identity had a good year.

Internal inflation, which averaged 13 percent for the period, started dropping from the mid-teens in the first half to a single-digit figure by the last quarter.

The group continued to build its healthy cash position, with cash and cash equivalents of R445 million at the end of the year from R129.6 million before.

Van der Merwe said Truworths was "looking aggressively" for acquisitions and had the cash pile to take advantage of attractive opportunities, but nothing had yet fitted its niche.

Mark said growth in merchandise sales for the first seven weeks of the current financial year was satisfactory compared with stronger sales growth achieved in the first half of the 2003 financial year.

The focus for 2004 would be on rejigging stores and introducing "new generation" stores.

"Truworths is well placed to take advantage of economic growth and further interest rate cuts," he commented.