3rd Oct 2024 11:51
(Alliance News) - FW Thorpe PLC on Thursday announced annual profit growth and a higher dividend as its cost of sales fell sharper than revenue.
The Worcestershire-based lighting systems firm said pretax profit rose 11% to GBP29.9 million in the financial year ended June 30 from GBP26.9 million a year ago.
Revenue edged down 0.5% to GBP175.8 million from GBP176.7 million.
Notably, cost of sales reduced by 8.6% to GBP90.4 million from GBP98.9 million. Administrative costs increased 5.5% to GBP33.0 million from GBP31.3 million, while distribution costs increased 16% to GBP22.4 million from GBP19.2 million.
"Zemper continues to make good contributions and started the new financial year with a good order book, supported by its host of new products. It is also contributing to some group collaboration projects where several companies have pooled know-how and developed new products with shared, and hence reduced, costs," FW Thorpe said.
Zemper is a Ciudad Real, Spain-based company focused on emergency lighting in commercial, infrastructure and industrial sectors which are supported by fire & safety regulations and industry specific accreditations.
Chair Mike Allcock noted that the larger companies are all in good shape with stable leadership with costs under control, while the smaller companies all have struggled somewhat to get back on a plan for growth in recent years.
Thorpe declared a final dividend of 5.08 pence per share, up 5.0% from 4.84p a year ago.
Furthermore, it announced a special dividend of 2.50p compared to none. This brings the total payout to 7.58p, up 57% from 4.84p.
Looking ahead, Chair Allcock commented: "The change in governments in various group locations raises a few questions about the future, but the group setup gives good resilience overall.
"Consolidated as a whole, the outlook is positive with modest growth expectations."
FW Thorpe shares rose 2.6% to 319.00 pence each late on Thursday morning in London.
By Tom Budszus, Alliance News slot editor
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