9th Apr 2024 11:33
(Alliance News) - Animalcare Group PLC on Tuesday raised its final dividend following a strong performance in 2023, as the company also announced the departure of Chair Jan Boone.
The York, England-based supplier of veterinary pharmaceutical products said pretax profit rose by 40% in 2023 to GBP3.5 million from GBP2.5 million the year before.
Revenue in the year was up 3.8% to GBP74.4 million from GBP71.6 million in 2022.
Underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation were up 1.5% to GBP13.3 million from GBP13.1 million.
The company attributed this performance to sales growth in the second half across all product categories, and a shift in focus to selling larger quantities of the most profitable brands in the product portfolio.
Animalcare has proposed increasing the final dividend by 25% to 3.0 pence per share from 2.4p. This would increase the total dividend for the year by 14% to 5.0p from 4.4p.
Looking ahead, Chief Executive Officer Jenny Winter said: "we will continue to push for profitable growth and cash generation in our existing operations as we focus on stepping up investment, whether inorganic or organic, to build our new product and R&D pipeline. With our strong balance sheet... the group is better equipped than ever to accelerate growth in the future."
Chair Jan Boone has informed Animalcare of his decision to step down following the company's annual general meeting on June 20 after seven years in the role. Ed Torr, senior independent director at Animalcare since 2017, will assume the role of non-executive chair following Boone's departure.
Animalcare shares were up 1.9% to 212.00 pence each in London on Tuesday morning.
By Elijah Dale, Alliance News reporter
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