25th Jul 2024 12:04
(Alliance News) - Howden Joinery Group PLC on Thursday declared an increased dividend for its first half, and reported revenue and profit growth.
The London-based kitchen and joinery supplier said that for the first six months of 2024, pretax profit rose 0.4% to GBP112.3 million from GBP111.9 million.
Howden noted that this is also 44% higher than its GBP78.1 million interim profit for 2019, the last year of trading before the Covid-19 pandemic started.
Revenue meanwhile rose 4.3% annually to GBP966.3 million from GBP926.9 million, with UK revenue rising at the same pace to GBP933.7 million. Group revenue was up 48% from the GBP652.6 million generated in the pre-Covid period in 2019.
Basic earnings per share, however, were flat year-on-year at 15.4 pence.
Howden Joinery also declared a 4.9p per share interim dividend, up 2.1% from 4.8p.
"Howden's performance in the first half was encouraging and we gained market share in a challenging marketplace," commented Chief Executive Andrew Livingston. "We continued to invest in our strategic initiatives which is strengthening our differentiated business model and delivering positive results."
He added: "We are focused on the significant growth opportunities in our core UK kitchen and joinery markets. To access these, we are progressing our new depot and reformat programme and making range and product innovations."
Howden Joinery said that since the start of the second half year, its performance has been in line with management expectations. Additionally, it is "on track" with its outlook for the full year.
"Despite the continued challenging market environment, our builder customers remain busy," Howden said, adding that it is focused on "disciplined" cost base management and "implementing our strategic initiatives to support continued market outperformance and long-term growth", which "will stand us in good stead for when market conditions improve".
"We continue to see opportunities to develop our business model internationally and we're making good progress in establishing Howdens' presence, laying the foundations for future success," CEO Livingston added.
Shares in Howden Joinery were trading 4.1% lower at 909.00p each early on Thursday afternoon in London.
By Emma Curzon, Alliance News reporter
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