6th Nov 2018 11:20
LONDON (Alliance News) - UP Global Sourcing Holdings PLC on Tuesday said its profit declined in its recently ended financial year, hit by a difficult trading environment.
The product sourcing and design company said its pretax profit came in 27% lower year-on-year at GBP5.4 million compared to GBP7.4 million.
Revenue fell 20% to GBP87.6 million in the year to the end of July, hurt by a difficult trading environment and a one-off impact of income deferral from a major European customer.
The decline in revenue was felt across all the brands, UP Global said, with the exception of Progress, its Lancastrian heritage brand acquired in July 2015. Progress brand revenue multiplied in the year to GBP3.2 million from GBP600,000 delivered a year ago.
Revenue from online channels grew by 52% to GBP7.0 million, representing 7.9 % of total revenue in the full-year.
The company said it made good progress in Germany where it opened its new showroom in April.
As a result, UP Global declared a final dividend of 1.89 pence per share, giving the total payout of 2.72p, down by almost half from 5.12p paid the year prior.
Looking forward, UP Global said its order book for financial 2019 is ahead of this time last year. The company intends to continue to focus on its four-pillar strategy and on its customer relationships, colleagues, systems and market-leading supply chain.
"This has been a challenging year for Ultimate Products and indeed for the wider general merchandise sector in the UK," said Chief Executive Simon Showman.
"While the UK market looks set to remain challenging for the foreseeable future, we continue to look to the longer-term future with confidence given the viability of our strategy, our experience of managing difficult trading conditions, and our strong balance sheet," added Showman.
UP Global shares were trading 0.4% higher on Tuesday at 38.66 pence each.
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