UK discount retailer Poundland met forecasts with a 19% rise in annual profit, though the firm cautioned that it expects the first half to be subdued after its sales growth slowed in its new financial year.
The firm, which sells all its products at the single price point of £1 from about 550 UK stores, said it made an underlying pretax profit of £43.7m in the year to March 29.
That was in line with analysts' average forecast of £43.6m and up from £36.8m made in the 2013-14 year.
Poundland, which trades as Dealz in Ireland, said sales for the 11 weeks ended June 14 grew 4.1%.
That compares to sales growth of 7.1% in the fourth quarter of the firm's 2014-15 year and growth of 10.2% in its third quarter.
It opened 10 stores in Ireland during its financial year, including one retail park, taking its store total here to 41 stores.
The company said it plans to open at least 60 new stores over the coming year, including ten new Dealz stores here.
"We expect to open at least 40 net new stores in the first half of the year, considerably ahead of last year's 28, which will leave us well positioned for our important third quarter Halloween and Christmas trading period," the company added.
Poundland also opened its first Dealz store in Spain on a trial basis and said that five will be opened at the end of the financial year.
Poundland said it expected the seasonally less important first half to be relatively subdued, reflecting tough comparative numbers and the weak euro.
But it said the outlook for the second half was better, reflecting softer sales comparables, a very strong first half opening programme of at least 40 net new stores, compared to 28 stores last year, and the annualisation of last year's new store programme.
In February, Poundland said it had agreed to buy smaller rival 99p Stores for £55m. However, the deal is currently subject to a probe by Britain's competition watchdog, with its findings not due until October.
