5th Mar 2026 12:13
(Alliance News) - Coats Group PLC on Thursday raised mid-term margin and free cash flow targets as it highlighted industry outperformance and market share gains.
The London-based manufacturer of materials for footwear and apparel said pretax profit edged up to USD210.6 million in 2025 from USD198.0 million in 2024.
Revenue increased 2.1% to USD1.46 billion from USD1.43 billion, or by 3% at constant currency. Coats said revenue growth was flat on an organic basis.
Basic earnings per share of 6.8 US cents, were up from 6.7 cents.
Coats reported "continued success in gaining share, outperforming core thread and footwear end markets, which we estimate were down low to mid-single digits compared to our flat organic revenue."
The company flagged a "strong" performance in apparel with 1% revenue growth, significantly outperforming market declines and market share growth and further margin improvement in footwear.
Performance Materials returned to growth in the second half, while OrthoLite delivered full-year profit in line with expectations.
Coats proposed a final dividend of 2.28 cents, up from 2.19 cents a year ago, bringing the total dividend to 3.28 cents, up 5.1% from 3.12 cents in 2024, "reflecting a good financial performance in a challenging market."
For 2026, Coats expects to "grow organically, even under conditions of market uncertainty," through the combination of "continued share gains and adjacency growth."
In addition, it upgraded certain medium-term targets.
The firm continues to see more than 5% revenue growth on average through the cycle, outperforming markets by 200 plus basis points.
It raised its operating margin range to 21% to 23% from 19% to 21%, and estimates cumulative free cash flow of around USD1 billion in next five years, up from USD750 million.
Shares in Coats leapt 8.9% to 95.20 pence each in London on Thursday.
By Jeremy Cutler, Alliance News reporter
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