LONDON (Commodity Online): Pawnbroker H&T brought some good news to investors on Monday by declaring that the gold’s exceptionally well performance will help the company beat the market expectations.

H&T is Britain’s biggest pawnbroker. H&T Group has introduced Gold Bars, a retail outlet where customers can trade-in old jewellery, in 56 shopping centres. Trading in unwanted jewellery had attracted consumers beyond its core pawnbroking customer base. The company expects to have up to 77 Gold Bars in its stores by the end of the year.

Based on the strength of the gold price and the media attention on selling gold, H&T identified the opportunity of building a retail network focused on gold purchasing in early 2009 and has opened 56 retail mall units so far.

In August, the company posted pre-tax profits of £8.4 million for the six months to June 30, up 52 per cent.

Pawnbrokers have been spurred by the price of gold, which is hovering near record levels of around $1,000 an ounce, and heightened interest in selling unwanted jewellery.

The Aim-listed company intends to open 12 stores in the second half of this year, taking its total to 122.

Since April the group has aggressively developed its gold-buying business, called Gold Bar stores. It is set to grow this to 70 Gold Bars by the end of the year. Gold prices have jumped from $900 to a high of $1,064 an ounce since June.

But the group uttered a note of caution and said it was conscious that current volumes may not be sustainable.

Since the beginning of the crunch a number of cash for gold players have entered the market – but Nicholls said the group’s success was based on its reputation.

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