Thu 9th Jul 2015 - Krispy Kreme UK more than doubles PBT to £7.2m Krispy Kreme UK more than doubles PBT to £7.2m: Krispy Kreme has reported that pre-tax profit surged to £7,274,000 in the UK in the year to 1 February 2015, up from £3,166,000 the year before. Turnover was stable at £52,192,000 compared to £52,393,000 the year before – store number were static at 50. The company stated: “The business has continued to make excellent progress during the year and has benefited from a full year of the management initiatives taken to grow volumes, increase gross profit margins and improve operating efficiencies. Revenues were flat against the previous year due to the phasing of revenues from new stores and the closure of some stores due to lease expires. The directors are pleased with the performance of the company, in particular the strong performance of its business in Scotland and the success of new store openings and the further significant improvement in gross profit margin to 56.9% (2014: 53.3%). This has resulted in an adjusted Ebitda before exceptional costs of £10,281,000 (19.7% of sales) compared with £9,419,000 (18% of sales) in the previous year, which provides a stable and cash generative base on which the directors intend to continue building a sustained and measured roll-out over the coming years as suitable sites become available. The strong profit performance of the business and the resulting cash generation has enabled the group to repay some of its loans after the balance sheet date on 2 June 2015 and to refinance its existing loans with Santander UK at a significantly lower interest cost with an extended maturity.” The company reported a 32% return on investment in 2015, up from 31.2% in 2014. Krispy Kreme staff numbers dropped to 998 in the year from 1,034 the year before.