31st Jul 2019 10:21
(Alliance News) - Devro PLC on Wednesday reported double-digit profit growth in the first half of 2019, helped by lower costs.
The manufacturers of collagen products said pretax profit in the six months to the end of June rose 25% to GBP13.6 million from GBP10.9 million reported a year ago, despite revenue slipping to GBP119.2 million form GBP120.2 million, as finance costs were reduced to GBP2.9 million from GBP4.1 million.
Devro said strong volume growth in China and North America - driven by new customer wins - was offset by expected weaker performances in Japan, Russia & East, and Latin America
The company noted, however, that despite higher sales volumes in China, the prices of its products in this region are currently lower than the global average.
Devro declared an interim payout of 2.7 pence a share, unchanged on the prior year.
"We continued to make good progress on our strategic priorities in the first half. We delivered manufacturing efficiency improvements, in particular with increased speeds at our US plant," explained Chief Executive Rutger Helbing.
"Despite weaker market sentiment in some mature markets and ongoing pressures from input cost inflation, the board believes Devro continues to be well placed to make good progress in 2019 and the full year outlook remains unchanged," added Helbing.
Devro shares were trading 0.6% lower on Wednesday in London at 208.70 pence each.
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