27th Aug 2014 11:06
LONDON (Alliance News) - Churchill China PLC Wednesday raised its interim dividend and said it remains confident of delivering a "strong performance" for 2014, after reporting increased profit and revenue for the first-half of the year.
The company, which manufactures ceramic products for hospitality and retail markets, posted a pretax profit of GBP1.4 million for the six months to June 30, compared with a GBP1.1 million profit in the first-half of 2013, as revenue rose by 6% to GBP20.9 million, up from GBP19.7 million last year.
"The board remains confident that we will deliver a strong performance for the year as a whole in line with our expectations," said Chairman Alan McWalter in a statement.
The company said that given the seasonality of its markets, its trading performance in the second-half is the most important in terms of its annual performance.
"We expect our rate of growth to moderate in the second half against more difficult comparatives from the excellent trading at the end of 2013," said McWalter.
Churchill China continues to invest in its businesses, which it said has helped increase sales to hospitality customers in the UK and Europe.
"In line with our strategic emphasis, retail sales declined... as we transferred resources, particularly manufacturing capacity, to Hospitality," the company said.
It said UK and European markets continue to be affected by increased duties on products imported from China, and as expected it saw some decline in sales of licensed products.
"Our success over recent years has been based on long term investment in sales, distribution and marketing... We have continued to invest in these areas and we believe that these investments will continue to improve the long term performance of our business," it said.
Churchill China shares were trading at 462.50 pence Wednesday midday, up 4.5%.
By Rowena Harris-Doughty; [email protected]; @rharrisdoughty
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