5th Feb 2015 08:26
LONDON (Alliance News) - Household and personal-care products company McBride PLC saw its share rise Thursday after its reported a higher pretax profit for the first half of its financial year, mostly due to improved UK profits as it continues to restructure its UK business.
The group left its interim dividend unchanged at 1.7 pence per share, in line with last year, despite almost doubling its pretax profit in the six months to end-December to GBP7.3 million, up from GBP3.7 million the year before, thanks to lower distribution and administrative costs.
McBride, maker of cleaning brands including Ovenpride and Limelite, said revenue in the period slipped by 4.1% to GBP364.7 million, down from GBP380.3 million the year before. However, it said on a constant currency basis, revenue was up 0.2%, while its private-label business delivered growth of 0.6% in the six month period.
Last year, McBride's sales and profits were hit by promotional activity in the UK, weaker demand in Europe, declining market share, and a number of restructuring costs and impairments as it embarked on a restructuring project for its UK business.
It said its margins improved during the first half of this year, thanks to a combination of operational efficiency in production, product re-formulation and innovation, improved product sales mix and softer raw material prices.
McBride said Thursday that its UK restructuring project is progressing well and remains on schedule.
McBride shares were trading 6% higher Thursday morning at 92.22 pence.
Last month, McBride had guided that trading in the first half was in line with its expectations, but said strong growth in Germany was offset by weakness in the rest of Europe, particularly in Italy and Spain.
In Thursday's statement McBride said that revenue in the UK and France was also subdued in the first-half.
"Many of McBride's key markets and categories have continued to experience weak trading environments. The business has worked hard to deliver growth from a number of new territories balancing declines seen in our more traditional markets. Against this backdrop, it is encouraging that the group has stabilised its revenue base on a constant currency basis," said Chairman Iain Napier in the statement.
"Our full year outlook remains unchanged, with the scope for the group to benefit from lower costs in the second half tempered by the extent to which Private Label can hold or grow volumes against branded promotions," said Napier.
By Rowena Harris-Doughty; [email protected]; @rharrisdoughty
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