23rd Sep 2014 06:56
LONDON (Alliance News) - Catering services and in-flight products business Journey Group PLC Tuesday reported a drop in profit and revenue for the first half of 2014, as it was hurt by the weakening of the dollar during the period.
The company, which supplies airlines with catering services, posted pretax profit of GBP596,000 for the six months to June 30, down from GBP690,0000 a year earlier, as revenue dipped to GBP18.8 million from GBP19.2 million.
Journey Group said it had a solid first-half trading, although it was hurt by the weak dollar.
"With substantially all of the group's revenues being US dollar based, any large swings in exchange rates do have a significant impact on the reported sterling results," the company said.
Overall revenue increased by 5% in US dollar terms reflecting growth in Journey's US division of 6%.
The US division saw revenue rise to USD20.3 million from USD19.1 million. The arm catered 44,000 flights serving over 1 million meals. The division was also boosted by a contract to provide catering services to JetBlue Airways Corp.
The productions division, also known as Watermark, showed a modest increase in revenue on an underlying US dollar basis to USD11.0 million from USD10.6 million a year earlier. However, gross margin declined reflecting a shift in emphasis and associated pricing model between design-based product and more generic items, the group said.
Looking forward, the Journey Group said it remains focused on maintaining momentum and near-term growth in its key US Division, "supported by the North American airline market which continues to show growth in passenger numbers and improving profitability".
Despite its problems the company increased its interim dividend to 1.375 pence from 1.25 pence a year earlier.
By Anthony Tshibangu; [email protected]; @AnthonyAllNews
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