24th Jul 2014 09:31
LONDON (Alliance News) - Howden Joinery Group PLC Thursday saw its shares surge after reporting an increase in profit and revenue for the first half, as improved trading conditions seen since last summer continued.
Howden shares were quoted up 4.6% at 325.90 pence Thursday morning, making it one of the biggest gainers on the FTSE 250.
The kitchens and joinery products supplier posted pretax profit of GBP57.2 million for the six months ended June 14, up from GBP41.6 million a year earlier, as revenue rose to GBP435.4 million from GBP390.8 million a year earlier.
Howden attributed its strong performance to a number of factors including improved market conditions and price increases implemented early in the year. In addition, it said sales from its French depots increased by more than 5% on constant currency terms.
It said gross profit margin rose to 63.2% from 61.5% a year earlier, reflecting the price increases.
At an operating level, Howden opened 17 new UK depots this year, bringing its overall depot total to 576. The company said a number of other depots are at various stages of the acquisition and shopfitting process.
Looking ahead, the company said the good sales performance seen in the first half of 2014 continued in the first four weeks of the second half of the year.
It said with a good first half performance, the group is well placed to achieve its expectations for the full year.
The company also said it continues to enhance its product offering, having introduced a number of new products in the first half of the year across all of its product categories. Howden said notable among these were eleven new kitchens which included six additional gloss colour options.
On the back of its performance, the company increased its interim dividend to 1.9 pence from 1.0 pence a year earlier.
By Anthony Tshibangu; [email protected]; @AnthonyAllNews
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