15th Nov 2013 08:36
LONDON (Alliance News) - AGA Rangemaster Group PLC said trading in the third quarter has picked up as expected due to an uptick in order intake. AGA said it expects revenues in the second half of the year to be ahead of a year before.
The range cooker and kitchen specialist said that it has seen an improvement in the number of housing transactions thanks to the acceleration in the levels of UK mortgage approvals.
It also highlighted an improving outlook for 2014, as sales and product initiatives begin to boost profits.
The group said that order intake to date is currently up by around 3% on last year, with AGA cooker orders up by more than 15% so far this year.
It said that its AGA Dual Control cooker and its Total Control cooker together represent over half of AGA cooker orders since the first half of the year.
Rangemaster orders are just ahead for the year to date, having trailed in the first half, the group said, while Rayburn and Stanley cast iron cooker sales are down.
AGA said that its Marvel refrigerators continue to perform well in North America, and are comfortably ahead of last year.
It also said that Grange orders are down, but orders from its tiling business, Fired Earth, are up 4% for the year to date, having finally returned to profitability in the first half of the year, after producing losses of as much as GBP1.4 million in 2011.
AGA said that its first shipment of AGA and Rangemaster products for the Chinese market, to be sold in collaboration with Zhongshan Vatti Appliance Stock Co. Ltd., will be made shortly, in preparation for a full launch in the first quarter of 2014.
AGA Rangemaster shares were up 2.9% Friday morning, at 127.05 pence per share.
By Rowena Harris-Doughty; [email protected]; @rharrisdoughty
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