Half Year Trading Update

RNS Number : 0034T

Portmeirion Group PLC

15 July 2020

 

15 July 2020

Portmeirion Group PLC

(the "Group")

Half Year Trading Update

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, updates on trading for the first half of the year .

Our sales for the six months to 30 June 2020 are approximately £32 million (2019: £34.9 million), representing a decrease of 8% compared to the previous year. Our like-for-like sales, excluding the sales from our Nambé division acquired in July 2019, were down 20%.

As previously reported, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the closure of retail stores around the world since March has significantly impacted our sales during this period. This impact has been partially negated by significant growth in online sales and by converting some of our production capabilities in our Wax Lyrical home fragrance factory to making hand sanitiser. As our key markets begin to re-open, we are now seeing an improving positive trend, resulting in like-for-like sales in June being down 9% on the same period last year.

Our own ecommerce sales in our core UK and US markets increased over 90% in the first half and over 100% in Q2 against the prior year. Growth in ecommerce sales has played a core role in our strategy in recent years and we expect to see continued strong growth in the second half of this year.

We expect to report a low single digit £ million loss before tax for the first half of 2020 (2019: £0.5 million profit). Our business has a significant second half weighting in sales and particularly profit generation. We are currently seeing good order intent from customers for our key seasonal trading period and assuming no further Covid-19 disruption and the trend of improved month on month trading continues, we are confident that we will return to profitability in the second half of 2020.  

We were pleased to report the successful completion of our equity raise in June 2020 which will be used to fund and accelerate a number of growth opportunities for the Group including our online sales channels, extending Wax Lyrical's product lines and building a more significant presence in Canada. We look forward to reporting progress in due course.

Our balance sheet remains strong and excluding the benefit of net proceeds from the equity raise of £11.2 million, we have been able to reduce net debt from the 31 December 2019 level of £12.3 million to just over £10 million. In addition, we have unutilised bank facilities of £15 million.

We expect to announce our interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2020 on 24 September 2020.

Mike Raybould, Chief Executive commented:

"Given the backdrop of total retail lockdowns around the world for over three months, we are very pleased with our sales performance in the first half and are encouraged by the improving trend we saw in June. Although there remains considerable economic uncertainty in our key markets, we are cautiously optimistic for the second half of 2020. Our brands have over 700 years of combined history and I would like to thank our employees around the world for their great resilience and agility in coping with the challenges the virus has thrown at us. Our priority remains the health and safety of our staff, customers and suppliers. We have continued to increase our investment in our growth strategy including our new product pipeline and online strategy and I believe we will see the benefit from this in the coming months and years."

Notes: This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014.

ENQUIRIES:

Portmeirion Group PLC:
Mike Raybould Chief Executive Officer	[phone]	[e-mail]
David Sproston Group Finance Director	[phone]	[e-mail]
Hudson Sandler:
Dan de Belder Nick Moore	[phone]	[e-mail] [e-mail]
Panmure Gordon:
(Nominated Adviser and Broker)	[phone]
Freddy Crossley / Joanna Langley		Corporate Finance
James Stearns		Corporate Broking

N+1 Singer:
(Joint broker)	[phone]
Peter Steel / Ben Farrow		Corporate Finance
Rachel Hayes		Corporate Broking

 

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