Ramsdens Holdings expects pre-tax profit of £32m to £35m for the year to 30 September 2026, unchanged from guidance upgraded in July, according to a pre-close trading update published on 12 October 2026. The multi-service retailer opened 10 stores in the year and has two more in fit-out, while a recommended offer from FirstCash awaits competition clearance.
Ramsdens combines pawnbroking, jewellery retail, precious metals buying and currency exchange across a UK estate of stores. The update, released through the Regulatory News Service at 7am, covers the financial year that ended on 30 September 2026.
Its headline reads “Continued progress in final quarter of FY26”, and the profit range matches the guidance the company set on 16 July 2026. The company is not described in the announcement as a franchise operation, and it is treated here as a company-run chain, unlike the multi-service brands recruiting operators in the UK.
Precious metals drive the year
Precious metals gross profit is expected at about £36m, roughly double the £18m of the previous year. Ramsdens attributes this to the gold price, with the average price up about 45% and the average weight of gold purchased up about 40%.
Jewellery retail gross profit is around 20% above the prior year. Currency exchange volume was broadly flat at tighter margins, while loads onto the Mastercard multi-currency card are growing, with about 60,000 cards in circulation.
Loan book and estate
The pawnbroking loan book closed the year at £15.9m, up from £11.5m, with loan-to-value remaining below 65%. Ten stores opened during FY26, and two further sites, in St Helens and Leicester, are in fit-out, funded from the company’s own capital rather than by operators, as happens across the business services brands recruiting UK partners.
The company put return on capital at over 20%. Peter Kenyon, chief executive, described the year as “yet another solid year of progress”, pointing to the high gold price as support for the precious metals division.
On the stated figures, the loan book grew by £4.4m, or about 38%, over the year. The profit range of £32m to £35m leaves a spread of £3m at the point of the update, and the company had already upgraded its guidance once, on 16 July 2026, and the October update confirms that range rather than moving it.
The FirstCash offer
Bidco, an indirect subsidiary of FirstCash Holdings, agreed a recommended cash offer for Ramsdens, and a revised final offer was announced on 16 July 2026. The announcement says the transaction remains subject to competition clearance.
The pre-close update therefore reads as a statement from a company in an offer period, and the figures are stated before the audited results, which have not yet been published, a distinction worth applying to any brand’s own figures, as how to choose your franchisor sets out.
What the update does not include
The pre-close update gives no profit figure outside the stated range, no like-for-like figure for the estate as a whole, and no timetable for the competition process. Audited results for the year to 30 September 2026 are the next primary record of the full-year figures.
Until then, the percentages in the update, such as the 45% rise in the average gold price and the 40% rise in weight purchased, are the company’s own unaudited statements, and the update does not say how much of the gross profit increase came from price and how much from volume.
