28th Jul 2015 10:03
LONDON (Alliance News) - Furnishings and fabrics designer and distributor Colefax Group PLC on Tuesday said its pretax profit in the financial year to the end of April rose despite a fall in sales in the period, as the group saw diverging performances from its fabrics and decorating businesses.
Colefax's pretax profit for the year was up 3% to GBP5 million from GBP4.9 million a year earlier, despite its sales falling to 2% to GBP76.8 million from GBP78 million a year earlier.
The company saw a big divergence in performance from its fabric and decorating divisions, with a good performance in the former offsetting the struggling latter. Fabric sales rose by 3% in the year to GBP66.3 million, with operating profit in the division rising by 28%. That helped to offset the profit impact of the tough conditions for its smaller decorating division, which posted a loss after sales fell by 28%.
The decorating business has been hit by the timing of major projects and by a weak trading environment for antiques, but the fabric division performed well amid improving markets in the US and UK, though it said European trading remains tough.
Colefax said it will pay a final dividend of 2.3 pence per share, meaning its total dividend will rise to 4.4 pence from 4.2 pence.
"Trading conditions in our two principal markets, the US and UK, continue to improve and we are optimistic about further growth in our core Fabric Division. Although we are cautious about prospects for our Decorating Division we expect to see increased activity in all the other areas of our business and as a result we are optimistic about our overall performance," said Chairman David Green.
Shares in Colefax were up 4.7% to 492.00 pence on Tuesday.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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