Albemarle & Bond Hldgs (LON:ABM) , one of the UK's leading pawnbrokers, announced impressive sales and profitability growth in the year to 30 June 2010. In a year in which the business invested in a new management team to the tune of £1.3 million and opened 17 new stores (the company now has a total of 135 full line stores), the company not only managed to grow sales by 48% to £82 million, but also increased gross profit by 26% (to £54 million) and PBT by 37% to £20 million. The core of Albemarle & Bond's business continues to be pawnbroking, but the recent results were driven in no small measure by its Gold Buying business line, which generated £11.5 million gross profit. The company has been rolling Gold Buying out across its stores since early 2009, and it has also opened 19 "pop up" shops in Northern shopping centres. These shops specialise in buying unwanted gold jewellery, the majority of which is subsequently sold on the scrap market within a week. This characteristic makes Gold Buying highly cash generative. Albemarle & Bond was able to trade in gold profitably throughout the recent gold price volatility, suggesting that it may continue to be a profitable business line even if gold prices decline.

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