30th Aug 2018 10:21
LONDON (Alliance News) - Ceramic crockery maker Churchill China PLC hiked its interim dividend Thursday after a boost to revenue and margins saw profit grow.
For the six months ended June, pretax profit widened 22% to GBP3.3 million from GBP2.7 million the year prior. This was after revenue rose 5.8% to GBP27.3 million from GBP25.8 million the before.
"I am pleased to report that Churchill has again delivered a strong performance in the first six months of the year with increased revenues and margins contributing to good profit growth and continued progress against our strategic targets", Churchill Chairman Alan McWalter said.
Churchill proposed an interim dividend of 8.7 pence per share, up 18% from the 7.4p paid a year prior.
"The focus of our strategy remains continued innovation in added value products and further investment across the business to allow us to extend the breadth of the markets we serve and continue to grow our market share," McWalter added.
"We recognise that there is a considerable degree of uncertainty in the current business climate and we are reflecting this in our forward plans," McWalter continued. "We believe we have a sustainable, long-term business model based on providing exceptional service to hospitality markets worldwide from a differentiated product range meeting high technical performance standards. These markets are characterised by high levels of replacement sales. We believe our core strategy remains robust and flexible enough to meet future challenges."
McWalter confirmed the firm remained "confident in our performance against our targets both in relation to 2018 and in the longer term".
Shares in Churchill China were 1.0% lower at 990.00 pence on Thursday.
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