Trading Update

RNS Number : 1030A

Character Group PLC

17 January 2020

 

The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information

stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014.  Upon the publication of this announcement via

the Regulatory Information Service, this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.

LONDON: Friday, 17 January 2020

THE CHARACTER GROUP PLC

("Character", "Group" or "Company")

Designers, developers and international distributor of toys, games and giftware

Trading Update

Ahead of the Group's Annual General Meeting being held today (17 January at 11.00hrs), Character provides the following trading update:

The 2019 Christmas trading period was extremely challenging with the total toy market in the UK contracting for the second successive year, and those conditions will impact our results for the first half of the financial year.  Sales of our core products were down against the comparable period last year.  Nevertheless they performed well with good sell through at retail in the UK.   

We enter the 2020 calendar year with a very strong product portfolio and, although the first half results will be below last year, we anticipate that the Group will deliver one of our strongest second half performances to date.  Our confidence for the second half has been boosted by the reactions from our customers to recent product previews and presentations.  With further viewing opportunities and product launches planned for the London Toy Fair, which takes place next week at Olympia, we expect the momentum to continue.

Despite the anticipated strong finish to the current financial year, the weakened Christmas performance has led the Board to believe that the Group's profit before tax for the year ending 31 August 2020 will be circa £10m, which is lower than current consensus expectations.

The Board looks forward to updating shareholders at the time of the publication of its interim results in early May.

The Character Group plc FTSE sector:  leisure goods: FTSE AIM All-share: symbol: CCT.L Market cap: £81m Email:  [e-mail] Group website: www.thecharacter.com

Product ranges can also be viewed at www.character-online.co.uk To find out more about PROXY, please visit the website at https://www.proxyas.com.

ENQUIRIES TO: The Character Group plc Richard King, Non-Executive Chairman Kiran Shah, Joint Managing Director & Group Finance Director Jon Diver, Joint Managing Director

Office:      [phone] Mobile:    [phone] (KS) Mobile:    [phone] (JD)

Panmure Gordon (Nominated Adviser and Joint Broker) Atholl Tweedie, Investment Banking Charles Leigh-Pemberton, Corporate Broking Tel:  [phone]

Allenby Capital Limited (Joint Broker) Nick Athanas Tel:  [phone]

TooleyStreet Communications Limited (Investor and media relations) Fiona Tooley Tel:  [phone] Email: [e-mail]

Evolution PR (Trade and consumer media) Michele Bates Tel: [phone] Email: [e-mail]

 

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