28th Jan 2015 09:02
LONDON (Alliance News) - International Greetings PLC Wednesday said it had performed "well" over Christmas and its overall results are in line with expectations with all its regions trading profitably.
The maker of gift wrapping, greetings cards, crackers and small gifts said it is on target to deliver planned earnings per share growth in the current financial year to end-March that's "in line with the group's performance over recent years and the board's stated growth strategy".
The company had reported fully diluted earnings per share before exceptional items of 8.3 pence in its last financial year, up from 7.8 pence the year before. It said it panned to deliver double-digit cumulative average EPS growth over a three-year period and to reduce debt and leverage to below two times debt to earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation. The current financial year is the second year of its three-year plan.
In a trading update Wednesday, the company said its new giftwrap manufacturing facilities in Wales were completed on time and to budget and are already producing "significant volumes highly efficiently". Its Dutch operation achieved record sales and production volumes, while it also achieved record sales in the US.
It got a boost from the popularity of Disney film Frozen, with sales of licenced Frozen products reaching over three million.
International Greetings shares were untraded Wednesday morning. The stock last traded at 70.00 pence.
By Steve McGrath; [email protected]; @stevemcgrath1
Copyright 2015 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
Design Group