1st Dec 2015 09:14
LONDON (Alliance News) - The Character Group PLC Tuesday said its trading remains in line with its expectations, as it reported a rise in pretax profit for its most recently ended financial year.
The toys, games and giftware company proposed a final dividend of 6.00 pence, taking its total dividend for the year to 11.00p, up 52% from 7.25 pence a year before.
For the year to end-August Character Group reported a pretax profit of GBP12.3 million, up from GBP7.1 million a year before, as revenue rose to GBP99.1 million from GBP97.9 million, and the company saw a reduction in the cost of sales. The company's gross profit margins improved to 37% from 29.8% a year before.
The company attributed its strong performance its domestic UK market trading ahead of expectations, which offset a currency hit and "generally difficult economic climate" in its international sales.
Character Group cited its most important brands during the year as 'Peppa Pig', 'Minecraft', 'Fireman Sam', 'Scooby Doo' and 'Doctor Who', amongst others. Looking ahead to 2016, the company has been appointed as global master toy partner for the 'Teletubbies' brand, and it will launch a new line of toy products in early 2016.
"Our new ranges coming to market over the next calendar year are very exciting and already receiving great reviews from both our customers and the trade media. On this basis, we are confident that the cornerstone brands and the new season's ranges will deliver in terms of demand and sales at consumer level across both our UK and international markets. At this stage we believe that our underlying performance should be able to deliver another year of solid progress," said Executive Chairman Richard King in a statement.
Shares in Character Group were down 0.4% at 500.00p Tuesday morning.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; [email protected]; @HanaSSAllNews
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