14 September 2021
PORTMEIRION GROUP PLC
('the Group')
Interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2021
Excellent first half performance driven by success of online strategy
Portmeirion Group PLC, the designer, manufacturer and worldwide distributor of high quality homewares under the Portmeirion, Spode, Royal Worcester, Pimpernel, Wax Lyrical and Nambé brands, is pleased to announce its results for the six months ended 30 June 2021.
Portmeirion experienced excellent trading in the first half with year-on-year sales growth of 35%. Furthermore, the business has not only recovered to its pre-pandemic levels but is now exceeding them with sales up 24% compared to two years ago in H1 2019.
Headlines
Financial
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Record Group revenue of £43.1 million, an increase of 35% over the prior year (2020: £32.0 million) and 24% over pre Covid-19 levels (2019: £34.9 million). |
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Like-for-like sales in constant currency up 7% against 2019 (“YO2Y”), ahead of pre Covid-19 levels despite ongoing disruptions, showing the strength of consumer demand and progress with our online strategy. |
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Headline profit before tax1 was £1.5 million (2020: loss before tax £2.7million, 2019: profit before tax £0.5 million). |
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Continued strong online sales growth which increased by 15% on a constant currency basis over 2020 with gross margin improvement of +900bps and 124% growth YO2Y. |
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Earnings per share up to 9.12p per share (2020: loss per share 20.71p, 2019: earnings per share 3.96p). |
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Strong balance sheet maintained and significant headroom within current borrowing facilities. |
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Dividends to be resumed for FY21. |
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Following a strong first half of the year and with an expanding global order book, the Group remains confident of achieving market expectations for FY21. |
Operational
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Good progress in developing online and digital capabilities, including further investment in online platforms and fulfilment capabilities. |
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Strong growth (57% against 2020, 4% YO2Y) in key South Korean market following successful period of management action and focus on stabilisation of stock levels. Growth expected to continue in H2. |
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Completed a number of automation investments in UK ceramic factory which will increase capacity to underpin future sales growth and margin improvements. |
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Successful expansion of home fragrance brand portfolio at Wax Lyrical; new factory line now producing hand and body care ranges, with first products shipping in the third quarter of the year. |
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New product launches including Sophie Conran for Portmeirion and Spode Creatures of Curiosity. |
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Our UK businesses both achieved Investor in People (IIP) Platinum accreditation in recognition of our commitment to leading, supporting and improving our workforce. |
1 Headline profit/(loss) before tax excludes exceptional items – see note 3.
Mike Raybould, Chief Executive, commented:
“We have seen strong trading in the first half of the financial year, including a significant benefit from the focus on our online transformation strategy. Since the period end trading has continued that trend into the first two months of the second half of the financial year. Looking forward we continue to have a strong order book across our key markets. While we are cognisant of the ongoing, widely reported disruption and volatility in global supply chains we are confident the accelerated strategic investments we are making across our business will enable a strong path of growth in the next few years.
Our products are much loved by our customers around the world and this is borne out by the speed of recovery in demand we are seeing across our key markets. Our brands are well known for their high-quality design and manufacture and, in addition, we now have a huge opportunity to deepen the direct relationship we have with the end consumer as well as attracting new direct customers, as we grow the percentage of sales made through our own digital channels.
The investments we are making across all parts of our business underpin our strategic commitment to better serve our end consumer. These include building significant new in-house digital/online expertise, improvements to front and back end web systems and increasing direct to consumer order fulfilment capacity in our UK and US warehouses. This will enable us to continue to grow strongly in all online channels whilst offering an even better level of service to all our customers. Whilst still only in the early stages of our digital journey, we are very pleased in the delivery of 124% growth in our own website sales against 2019, demonstrating the potential of pursuing this strategy and showing the immense further opportunity in this area.
I am pleased a number of key operational projects that have been in progress over the last twelve months are now close to completion. In August, the first products came off our new hand and body production line at our Wax Lyrical factory in Cumbria. This opens up a new revenue category for our Wax Lyrical brand and we expect to launch hand and body products under our Portmeirion Botanic Garden range in 2022 as part of its 50th year promotional campaign. Key automation projects in our Stoke-on-Trent ceramic factory are now close to completion and will deliver improved efficiency and additional capacity that will underpin the scaling up of our UK production output and support our sales growth and operating margin ambitions.
I would like to thank all our employees for their exceptional resilience and tenacity in dealing with the daily ongoing challenges that Covid-19 presents whilst at the same time delivering on our strategy with considerable success. I am confident that the changes we are making to our business and the significant levels of new expertise we are adding will enable our brands to grow strongly in the coming years whilst we continue to develop much loved homeware products for our customers around the world.”
This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of the retained UK version of the EU Market Abuse Regulation (EU) 596/2014 (“UK MAR”).
Enquiries:
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Portmeirion Group PLC:
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Mike Raybould, Chief Executive |
+44 (0) 1782 743443 |
mraybould@portmeiriongroup.com |
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David Sproston, Group Finance Director |
+44 (0) 1782 743443 |
dsproston@portmeiriongroup.com |
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Hudson Sandler: |
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Dan de Belder Nick Moore |
+44 (0) 207 796 4133 |
ddebelder@hudsonsandler.com nmoore@hudsonsandler.com |
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Panmure Gordon (UK) Limited: |
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(Nominated Adviser and Broker) |
+44 (0) 207 886 2500 |
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Freddy Crossley |
Corporate Finance |
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Rupert Dearden |
Corporate Broking
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Singer Capital Markets: |
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(Joint Broker) |
+44 (0) 207 496 3000 |
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Peter Steel |
Investment Banking |
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Rachel Hayes |
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