TOP NEWS: Marshalls Annual Profit Up As Acquisition Of CPM Contributes

14th Mar 2018 08:47

LONDON (Alliance News) - FTSE 250-listed landscape products firm Marshalls PLC on Wednesday reported a double-digit increase in profit on strong revenue growth in 2017, helped by a recent acquisition.

Pretax profit for the year rose 13% to GBP52.1 million from GBP46.0 million the year before, on an improved operating margin of 12.4% compared to 12.0% in 2016.

Revenue grew by 8.0% to GBP430.2 million, up from GBP396.9 million, as like-for-like revenue rose by 6.0% during the period.

Marshalls said that revenue was helped by a GBP9.0 million contribution from pre-cast concrete maker CPM Group Ltd, acquired for GBP39.0 million in October.

Marshalls said sales to the Public Sector & Commercial end-market were up 2.0% compared to the prior year. Excluding the contribution from CPM, sales to this market represented 61% of group sales for 2017.

Sales in the Domestic end-market, making up 32% of group sales, increased by 12% from the year before, outperforming forecasts from the Construction Products Association.

Marshalls declared a final dividend of 6.80 pence per share, up 17% from 5.80p in 2016. Including a supplementary dividend of 4.00p, up from 3.00p the year before, this brings the total payout to 14.20p, up 21% from 11.70p the year before.

Marshalls said it had a strong start to 2018, with sales up 18% including CPM for the first two months.

"The group has again delivered strong profit growth year-on-year. Good progress has been made in the year executing the 2020 Strategy, notably the acquisition of CPM, and the ongoing self help programme to drive organic growth is progressing well. The underlying drivers have remained positive in our main end markets and our sales and order intake have been strong in the first 2 months of 2018," said Chief Executive Martin Coffey.

Shares in Marshalls were up 0.1% at 450.40 pence on Wednesday.

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