19th Sep 2019 12:47
(Alliance News) - Lighting system manufacturer FW Thorpe PLC on Thursday raised its full-year dividend and said its trading was in line with expectations despite reporting a revenue fall from its largest unit.
In the year ended June 30, revenue rose by 0.9% to GBP110.6 million from GBP109.6 million.
Pretax profit stayed broadly flat at GBP19.6 million, helped by a GBP1.9 million gain made on the sale of a Thorlux property in Portsmouth, Hampshire. Operating profit, before the disposal, fell by 9.3% to GBP17.6 million from GBP19.5 million.
The company raised its dull-year dividend by 2.4% to 5.53 pence per share, up from 5.40p.
Thorlux Lightning, its largest division, had a 4.1% fall in revenue to GBP65.9 million from GBP68.6 million. In March the company reported that Thorlux, which manufactures professional lighting systems for the industrial, commercial and controls markets, had difficult first half of trading. It made a "strong recovery" in the second half, FW Thorpe added.
Lightronics, which specialises in impact resistant outdoor lighting, had a 12% rise in revenue to GBP23.5 million from GBP21.1 million.
Revenue from its Other Companies segment rose 6.3% to GBP28.8 million from GBP27.1 million.
Looking ahead, the company said it is "subject to unpredictable economic conditions, particularly in the UK", due to Brexit. FW Thorpe added that although it has plans in place to "mitigate these impacts", uncertainty still weighs on consumer confidence.
Chair Mike Allcock said: "UK operations suffered from a significant general downturn in market conditions in the first half of the year, and despite an excellent recovery of orders in the second half and good contributions by Lightronics and Famostar in the Netherlands, revenue increased only marginally over the year.
"It is, however, pleasing to report that despite ongoing uncertain economic conditions in the UK, orders closed ahead of the previous year and the group entered the new financial year with a healthy order book."
Shares in FW Thorpe were 0.7% lower at 300.00p apiece in London on Thursday afternoon.
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