Finished goods inventories include £14.9m (2020: £18.0m) of provisions to carry inventories at net realisable value where such value is lower than cost. During the period £1.8m of inventory provisions were released (no reversals in the prior period).

During the period £3.0m was recognised as an expense in respect of the write-down of inventories (2020: £6.9m) to net realisable value. No inventories are held as security for external borrowings.

Goods bought for resale recognised as a cost of sale amounted to £629.1m (2020: £563.8m).

Inventories at 2 April 2021 include a right to recover returned goods amounting to £2.1m (2020: £1.9m). These are measured by reference to the former carrying amount of the sold inventories.

An amount of £2.3m (FY20: £0.3m deduction) relating to supplier income was recognised as an increase in cost of sales in the period and the balance included in the year end provision is £5.6m (FY20: £7.9m).