Continued Growth at Italian Business

RNS Number : 7225T

Victoria PLC

29 March 2021

 

Victoria PLC

('Victoria', the 'Company', or the 'Group')

  Continued Growth at Italian business - Milestone of €100m Sales Achieved

The Board of Victoria PLC (LSE:VCP), the international designers, manufacturers and distributors of innovative floorcovering, is pleased to advise that its Italian business has continued to grow throughout 2020/21 and on Friday invoiced its €100 millionth sale since the start of the financial year.

In December 2017, Victoria began its expansion into Italy by acquiring Sassuolo-based ceramic tile manufacturer, Ceramiche Serra - a mid-sized factory with revenues at the time of €28 million. As shareholders will recall from earlier announcements, Serra continued to perform very strongly under Victoria's ownership and, notwithstanding investment in a new production line shortly after acquisition, outgrew its production capacity during 2019.

Therefore, in February 2020, Victoria acquired, for £9.9 million, the factory of a neighbouring business, which was facing closure, complete with its plant, equipment and brands . This was a highly efficient way of adding production capacity as it provided more-or-less instantaneous additional production capacity versus the 18-24 months it would take to build a factory, install the plant, and acquire emission rights.

This factory was fully integrated into the existing Italian operation during the following six months, with a reduction of employees from 368 to 250 FTE alongside production output increasing by 1.2m m² of red body tiles and 0.7m m² of porcelain tiles. The product mix was also optimised.

Victoria is delighted to report that, despite the constraints of the last 12 months, the management team has taken full advantage of the additional capacity. G rowth has accelerated over the last 12 months with new significant customers and new markets - mainly in Eastern Europe and North America - being secured (nearly 100% of output is exported globally) . As a result, on Friday 26 March, the business reached a remarkable milestone - invoicing €100 million of sales for the year since 30 March 2020.

Organic growth has again filled capacity and some production is once more being outsourced. Consequently, Victoria is now actively seeking to efficiently add further capacity to enable this production to be insourced to improve margins further as we are confident of additional growth in 2021/22.

For more information contact:

Victoria PLC Geoff Wilding, Executive Chairman Philippe Hamers, Group Chief Executive Michael Scott, Group Finance Director	[phone]
N+1 Singer (Nominated Adviser and Joint Broker) Rick Thompson, Phil Davies, Alex Bond	[phone]
Berenberg (Joint Broker) Ben Wright, Mark Whitmore, Tejas Padalkar Peel Hunt (Joint Broker) Adrian Trimmings, Andrew Clark Buchanan Communications (Financial PR) Charles Ryland, Chris Lane, Tilly Abraham	[phone] [phone] [phone]

About Victoria Established in 1895 and listed since 1963 and on AIM since 2013 (VCP.L), Victoria PLC, is an international manufacturer and distributor of innovative flooring products. The Group, which is headquartered in Kidderminster, UK, designs, manufactures and distributes a range of carpet, flooring underlay, ceramic tiles, LVT (luxury vinyl tile), artificial grass and flooring accessories. Victoria has operations in the UK, Spain, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Australia and employs approximately 3,400 people across more than 20 sites. Victoria is the UK's largest carpet manufacturer and the second largest in Australia, as well as the largest manufacturer of underlay in both regions.  The Group's strategy is designed to create value for its shareholders and is focused on consistently increasing earnings and cash flow per share via acquisitions and sustainable organic growth. (Further information about Victoria can be found on its website, www.victoriaplc.com.)

 

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