1st Apr 2008 07:00
Barr(A.G.) PLC01 April 2008 For immediate release 1 April 2008 A.G.BARR p.l.c. PRELIMINARY RESULTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26th JANUARY 2008 A.G.BARR p.l.c. the soft drinks group announces its preliminary results for the12 months to 26th January 2008. Key Points • Profit on ordinary activities before tax and exceptional items increased by 11.4% to £21.3m (2007 - £19.1 m). • Profit before tax increased by 27.4% to £20.8m (2007 - £16.4m) reflecting the significant prior year exceptional costs of re-organisation and rationalisation. • Turnover increased by 4.6% to £148.4m (2007 - £141.9 million). • Proposed final dividend of 28.00p per share to give a proposed total dividend for the year of 39.00p per share, an increase of 11.4% over the previous year. • Strong performance from both core carbonate brands and still brands despite poor summer weather. • IRN-BRU and Diet IRN-BRU revenue increased by 3% and market share grew across all regions in the UK. • Acquisition of Vitsmart functional water and Taut sports drinks brands plus Rockstar energy drink franchise enhance the portfolio. • Cash flow remained strong resulting in £17.9m cash at bank. • Operating profit margin improved as the restructuring programme begins to deliver planned benefits. Commenting Roger White, Chief Executive said: "The business made excellent progress over the last 12 months despite thedifficulties of poor weather and increased competition in the soft drinksmarket. During the course of the last year we have grown our sales, improved ouroperating margins and continued to develop our strong portfolio of brands. The current challenging macro economic climate should have minimal impact on ourbusiness. We remain confident that we can deliver growth and improve businessperformance from our expanding stable of brands. The benefits of our capitalinvestments and restructuring programme are now beginning to flow throughimproving cost and operational capability. Sales in the first seven weeks of the new financial year are 3% ahead of thesame period last year." New images can be found at www.fovea.tv after 3pm free of charge. For more information, please contact: A.G.Barr Tel: 01236 852400 Buchanan Communications Tel: 020 7466 5000 Roger White, Chief Executive Tim Thompson / Nicola Cronk / Susanna Gale Iain Greenock, Finance Director Chairman's Statement Review of Results Profit before taxation for the year to January 2008 was - excluding exceptionalitems - £21.3m compared with £19.1m for the previous year. This increase of11.4% represents an excellent overall performance in a year of dismal summerweather and also reflects the improvement in operating costs resulting from theinfrastructure changes completed during the year. The exceptional items produced a net charge of £0.5m. This was a substantialreduction from the charge of £2.8m incurred last year and represented the finalcosts of our recent restructuring process. Turnover for the year to January 2008 was £148.4m - an increase of 4.6% over theprevious year. Adjusting for the turnover of the Strathmore Water business whichwas acquired in June 2006, the like-for-like increase was 2.7%. The tax charge for the current year is again very low at 19% of the profit onordinary activities compared with the corporation tax rate of 30% applicable tothe year. The difference is substantially due to a reduction of £1.3m in thecompany's tax charge for this year related to the disposal of properties at theconclusion of our restructuring process. Basic earnings per share have risen from 69.65p to 86.75p and your directors arepleased to recommend a final dividend of 28.00p per share to give a totaldividend for the year to January 2008 of 39.00p - an increase of 11.4%. It isworth noting that over the last six years we have been able to raise the totaldividend for the year from 21.60p to 39.00p - an overall increase of 80.6%. People On behalf of our external shareholders I would again like to take thisopportunity to thank all our employees for their efforts during this year. Theexcellent results achieved are particularly creditable given both thedistraction of completing the infrastructure changes and the exceptionally poorsummer weather experienced this year in comparison with 2006. Board We announced in January that the current year would see the retiral of two longserving executive directors. Alan Bibby, Operations Director, retired on 29th February. He joined the Companyin 1977 and was appointed to the Board in 1985. Iain Greenock who will retire atthe end of June joined the Company in 1975 and was appointed Finance Director in1998. Throughout these long periods of service both Alan and Iain haveconsistently given a level of application and professionalism which hascontributed substantially to the Company's success over that time and I wouldlike to thank them on behalf of all our shareholders and wish them both well intheir retirement. After the conclusion of an exhaustive recruitment process I am pleased toconfirm that we have been able to appoint two capable and experienced candidatesto the vacant positions. Andrew Memmott, who joined the Company in 1990 and wasmost recently Head of Manufacturing, was appointed Operations Director on 1stMarch. We also anticipate the appointment on 1st July of Alex Short as FinanceDirector. Alex is currently Group Finance Director of William Grant & Sons Ltd,a major company in the alcoholic drinks industry. I look forward to thecontributions that these two new board members will make to the Company. Prospects Competition within the soft drinks industry remains intense and is now spreadover the much wider range of products which today's consumer demands. To meetthis change we have continued to widen our own portfolio into those categorieswhich offer prospects of profitable growth while, at the same time, we remainaware that traditional carbonates will for the future remain the largest softdrinks category. We are confident that the strength of our core brands in thatcategory will enable us to successfully develop the widening portfolio withwhich we are now engaged. W R G Barr CHAIRMAN Chief Executive's Statement Financial Performance Over the course of the last financial year our business has delivered a strongoverall performance. We have continued to execute our value based growthstrategy and despite the extremely poor summer weather and its consequentialimpact on the soft drinks market we have delivered growth in sales revenue,operating margin and profit, at the same time as we further invested in ourbrands and assets. The pace of operational change has continued to bechallenging but we remain confident in our ability to deliver improved financialperformance even in times of significant change. Although the poor summer weather impacted the soft drinks market we continued tomake good financial progress with pre-tax profit, before exceptionals,increasing by 11.4% from £19.1m to £21.3m. This strong performance wasunderpinned by improvements in operating margins reflecting the impact of thebenefits in our Scottish supply chain project beginning to flow through. Total sales grew by 4.6% from £141.9m to £148.4m in the period (2.7% on alike-for-like basis adjusting for the Strathmore Water business acquired in June2006), highlighting the resilient nature of our brands which have collectivelygrown market share across the year. Although we continued to manage our business primarily focusing on value notvolume, we did, as previously indicated, marginally increase our promotionalweight in the multiple retailers sector across the summer period. Thisinitiative in tandem with our ongoing development of the impulse market and astrong control over costs ensured that we successfully delivered our businesstargets across the summer period despite the challenging market conditions. Operating profit before exceptionals increased by 11.2% and the operating marginimproved in line with our expectations from 12.9% to 13.7%. Further improvementto operating margin is expected from our restructuring programme althoughincreased marketing support costs are planned as we further develop our brandportfolio for the long-term. Capital spend in the period was £12.5m and, although lower than the prior year,it was higher than long-term average levels as we completed our majorrestructuring projects. During the second half of the year we completed theclearance of and exit from our Atherton site. This location is now surplus toour operating requirements and a marketing process has now commenced. Despiteour high level of capital spend, we were able as a consequence of our continuedfocus on cash management to exit the year with £17.9m of cash in the bank. We acquired the Vitsmart and Vitaminsmart brands from Chartered Brands inDecember 2007 for a potential total consideration of £350,000. This acquisitionwill give us a head start in the enhanced waters category with an existingproduct range and revenue streams to quickly build on. The total sales ofVitsmart/Vitaminsmart in 2007 were approximately £1.0m at retail sales value. We also announced the acquisition of the Taut sports drinks business in lateJanuary 2008. The business was acquired for a nominal sum of £1 and hadoperating losses of c£1.3m in 2006. This acquisition also gives us a strongpoint of entry into the sports drinks category with a brand that has already hada significant marketing and promotion spend behind it and importantly a credibleposition with both consumers and the trade in this key growth category. The Tautbusiness will be rapidly consolidated into our operating structure and we expectthat the operating losses will be stemmed during the early part of 2008/09. Itis consequently anticipated that Taut will not have a material impact on theoperating performance of the business in 2008/09 financial year. The Market Over the course of the 2007/08 financial year the total soft drinks market grewin value by 3% however its volume dropped by 2% (source Nielsen Scantrack 12months to 26th January, 2008). This performance reflects the difficultyear-on-year comparison in the summer months which contrasted the UK's hottestsummer in 2006 with its wettest in 2007. This poor summer position wasparticularly evident in those sub-categories which had done best in the summerof 2006 - namely water, dilutables and fruit juice. Carbonates in comparisonperformed relatively better. This was partly due to less difficult comparatorsbut further confirms our view that good quality, well supported carbonate brandscan continue to offer good growth prospects. In the twelve month periodcarbonates were up 4% in value and slightly down in volume. Within thecarbonates sector the decline of a number of historically poorer performingnon-differentiated fruit carbonate brands continued. Regardless of weather the two sub categories which have consistently performedstrongly over the last two years are sports and energy, in both still andcarbonated format. With growth in the last twelve months in excess of 20% involume and value these sub categories continue to form much of the engine forgrowth in the category as a whole. With this in mind it is even more importantto develop our portfolio into these key areas of potential for future growth. During the last twelve months our pence per litre (PPL) as measured by Nielsenhas continued to improve, increasing by 2% on core Barr brands. This growth ismarginally lower than the prior twelve months reflecting our stated plan ofincreasing promotional weight in multiples as well as the highly competitivenature of the market during the difficult summer period. We anticipate a returnto our historic level of promotional weight in 2008/09 and consequently expectour own PPL to rise at or possibly in advance of industry average levels. Strategy Our core strategic focus remains unchanged and we continue to develop ourstrategy around: • Core brands and markets • Portfolio development • Route to market • Partnerships • Efficient operations In addition, the ongoing development of our people underpins each of these areasof strategic focus. Much of our time and effort in the last twelve months has been spent in pursuitof our goal of building a sustainable future growth platform for the business. We have therefore allocated increased resources towards the areas of core brandsand markets, portfolio development and partnerships all of which are central tomeeting our future growth aspirations. Core Brands and Markets The Barr brands portfolio performed well in both market share and absolute salesterms across the year. Although the poor summer weather had a negative impact onthe total soft drinks market our market share was at its strongest in thedifficult summer months demonstrating the underlying brand strength and consumerdemand for our core brands. The continued focus on product quality and consumerpreference, in particular their taste preferences on a regional basis, has paidfurther dividends in improved sales performance across our range and throughoutthe UK. IRN-BRU and Diet IRN-BRU both continued to show good year-on-year growthincreasing sales revenue by over 3%. Considerable market share gains were alsomade especially in England and Wales where the IRN-BRU brand grew market shareby 10% in the period. This market share performance contrasts starkly withcompeting other flavoured carbonate brands - Fanta and Tango - both of whichlost significant volume and share over the year. The IRN-BRU brand is now invalue share terms bigger than the combined size of the Lilt, Sprite and Tangobrands. After a huge initial sales performance IRN-BRU 32 has settled into astable rate of sale which reflects its position in the portfolio as a long-termproduct focused on energy drink consumers specifically in the Scottish market. In an exciting year for the brand, IRN-BRU became the main sponsor of theScottish Football League cementing its position as a prominent supporter ofgrass roots sports throughout Scotland. With a combination of centrallycontrolled football initiatives balanced with local club support and activities,this three year deal gives the IRN-BRU brand a great platform for communication.In tandem with the continued increase in overall marketing investment behind theIRN-BRU brand the packaging was further updated with the classic IRN-BRU bottledesign now represented across the whole impulse portfolio and a higher level offocus behind the 250ml small bottle range. The IRN-BRU brand is in good healthwith the potential to deliver further exciting developments across 2008/09. Orangina has had another excellent year with revenue growth of 13% reflectingconsumers' response to the increased marketing investment in the brand and alsothe significant improvements to listings and distribution. The creative andcommercial plans for 2008/09 suggest that the current momentum should continue. Tizer was re-launched at the start of the year with the addition of real fruitjuice and with no artificial colours, flavours or sweeteners - the "new originalrecipe" Tizer. Tizer has performed in line with the other flavoured carbonatessector this year with sales down 4% reflecting a combination of the poor summerand a number of previously lost listings impacting sales. Tizer has recovered 7%in PPL but now needs to re-establish its distribution and listings across 2008/09. The underlying strength of our regional offerings whether in the West ofScotland, Central London or the M62 corridor has once again delivered goodgrowth. Our regional portfolio including D'N'B, KA, Red Kola and the Barr rangesubstantially outperformed the market with all brands in growth and aparticularly encouraging performance this year in the London area. Over the course of the last year we rationalised our water offering to focus theFindlays brand on water coolers and Strathmore as our main retail/food servicewater brand. We commenced, as planned, our marketing activity behind theStrathmore brand including a heavy weight TV advertising campaign and outdoormedia in Scotland despite the weakness in the overall water market during thesummer of 2007. The launch of Strathmore into the impulse market has gone wellalthough the poor market conditions experienced by the water category overallhas held sales flat. The water market remains competitive but we plan tocontinue to develop Strathmore as a premium brand in the sector. We have furtherinitiatives designed to build the brand included in our programme for 2008/09. Portfolio Development During the last twelve months we have made significant progress in thedevelopment of our portfolio across the wider soft drinks category. It remainsour firmly held view that taste is a key determinant of success and thatconsumers wish a range of products - traditional carbonates, still/fruit basedproducts and functional drinks. Our efforts to accelerate our developments andimprove our speed to market have seen further progress in the development of theSt Clement's brand with the launch of a range of juices and smoothies. Thesehigh quality products are marketed with both the consumer and trade in mind -they are designed to be "stored ambient and served chilled". They are positionedat a good value for money price point, meeting the demands of the impulsechannel where chilled storage and distribution is an issue and allowingincreased numbers of consumers access to a high quality product category at acompetitive price in this channel. We have also re-designed our schools range once more in the period to meet thechallenging and often inconsistent requirements of this sector. In our efforts to develop our portfolio we have taken a pragmatic approach tosatisfy our growth and development aspirations - consequently we have not onlydesigned and launched several new products under our existing brand names but wehave also purchased brands. The acquisitions have been in sectors which webelieve are capable of real sustained future growth where speed to market andbrand credibility is important. The purchase of the Vitsmart/Vitaminsmart brandsand the Taut sports drink business allows us a fast start into these keycategories with the potential to grow quickly over the course of the next fewyears. Our commercial partnership with Rockstar commenced in the final quarter of 2007/08 with the launch of three Rockstar variants - standard, diet and a juicedproduct - into the UK. The large can energy market is growing quickly and withthe product and marketing support of Rockstar we can provide an exciting rangeto consumers in this growing category. Last year has therefore seen considerable development in our portfolio andbrought us to a position where we are becoming a more balanced business, withprospects of growth across multiple brands in almost all key sectors. Route to Market Supporting the rapid growth of our portfolio is crucial in route to marketterms. We have continued to invest in the infrastructure to develop our specificroute to market. Although the impulse market remains an important focus for ourefforts, we have improved performance and resources across all our key tradechannels and will continue to do so. The roll out of our new CustomerRelationship Management software is planned for early in the 2008/09 financialyear following a full year of development work. This system is designed both toimprove our cost efficiency and at the same time enhance our overall customerservice offering. Partnerships Our ability to form strong strategic partnerships remains a cornerstone of ouroperating philosophy. Throughout the business we encourage a partnershipapproach with both internal teams and our key external business contacts. During the last year our Orangina business has continued to improve with totalsales of Orangina International products now over £8.0m. We are committed todeveloping the Orangina business in the U.K. Our partnership with the Rockstar team has made an excellent start with hugeinterest in the brand and a strong executional plan for 2008. We have seen strong growth from the Rubicon brand and will continue to work withthe Rubicon team to deliver contract filling and route to market support for thebrand. On a less positive note we ended our supply of carbonated PET and can productsto Marks and Spencer during the course of last year. This was our only piece ofcustomer own brand business and accounted for sales of £1.7m in 2006/07.However, we have recently launched a new range of traditional carbonates inglass bottles with Marks and Spencer. This traditional range is targeted atslightly older consumers and has made good early sales progress. IRN-BRU in Russia has done very well over the last twelve months with localsales up 20% versus the overall carbonated soft drinks market in Russia at +7%.This performance continues to give us confidence that the IRN-BRU brand can befurther developed outside the UK. Exports to our partners in Spain increased by 32% and our fledgling business inAustralia broke through the 1 million litre mark ahead of plan. We have once again continued across the year to work with our key partnersuppliers in many fields to manage risk, enhance quality and improve efficiencywhile reducing environmental impacts. Efficient Operations The structural changes in which we have invested over the last twenty fourmonths have now started to deliver the operating efficiencies and cost savingsas planned. Our fewer, larger operating sites have had a busy year with thecompletion and commissioning of our new can line being the single biggestinvestment. Across all our sites we have continued to invest to improveflexibility, cost, quality, safety and service. This has not been an easy yearwithin our core operations - new systems and new people, operating on updatedsites plus a major new line being commissioned at Cumbernauld with the addeddimension of the planned closure of our Atherton site in June. Throughout thesechanges our focus on the continuous improvement of cost and efficiency coupledwith improved flexibility has enabled all our teams to deliver our operatingplan. The further development of our product portfolio is naturally giving usincreased operational challenges to meet which we are confident we will tacklesuccessfully. As we look forward our operational efforts will continue to focuson efficiency and cost. However, increasingly operational complexity and theenvironment will play larger roles in our long-term planning. Our asset base is in good health but we cannot afford to be complacent since wehave stretching improvement targets throughout our operations. Furtherinvestment planning is now underway with long-term site development plans beingcreated for our key locations. People The business performance improvements of the last twelve months have beendelivered by the people in our business. Through sheer hard work, experience,talent and commitment many have overcome significant hurdles to deliver thefinancial performance we have achieved. I would like to thank everyone for their efforts. I would also like tospecifically thank the team at our Atherton site who worked effectively and withgreat spirit until the final can was filled at that site in June of last year. At Board level the retirement of Iain Greenock, Finance Director and Alan Bibby,Operations Director will be a great loss and I would like to thank them fortheir many years of service and the great impact they have both had on thebusiness. We were however pleased to welcome Andrew Memmott to the Board on hisappointment as Operations Director and we look forward to Alex Short joining usas Finance Director during the summer of 2008. I am also pleased to welcomeJulie Barr to the role of Company Secretary. Julie joined the company in 2004following her earlier legal career. Throughout the last year we have continued to improve our training anddevelopment across the business with 25 managers benefiting from our BusinessLeadership programme and 9 managers participating in our First Line managementprogramme. Another 32 managers achieved further external qualifications such asNational Vocational Qualifications during the last twelve months. As our business grows and develops communication becomes more important. This isan area we aim to further develop. We have established local consultation teamsas a first formal step and improved our internal KPI and performance briefings.We will continue to invest time and effort across the business to ensure peopledevelopment and communication keeps pace with the business as it develops. Outlook The business, despite mixed weather and a competitive soft drinks market,performed well over the last financial year. The soft drinks market remains achallenging but rewarding sector although it is changing and its complexitiesare increasing - it is not as simple as carbonates and stills or full sugar anddiet - consumers are becoming more selective, media is fragmenting, demographicprofiles are changing. We need to take account of all of this in moving thebusiness forward but we must also remember not to lose sight of the basicfundamentals - taste, brand differentiation and product availability. We have, as planned, delivered improved operating profit during the last twelvemonths and we have increased the momentum behind the development of ourportfolio. We must now continue to both invest behind our core brands at thesame time as we provide support to our growing portfolio of new brands. Although the general economic outlook is somewhat uncertain and there ispressure on margins from increased input costs across our industry we remainoptimistic that we are well positioned to ride out these difficulties and lookforward to further sustained business growth and improvement. Roger White CHIEF EXECUTIVE A.G.BARR p.l.c. Consolidated Income statement for the year ended 26th January, 2008 The following are the unaudited results for the year to 26th January, 2008. TheBoard recommends the payment of a final dividend of 28.00p per share which ifapproved by the shareholders will be posted on 5th June, 2008. The totaldistribution proposed for the year amounts to 39.00p per share (2007 -35.00p) Group 2008 2007 £000 £000 Revenue 148,377 141,876Cost of sales 76,068 71,453Gross profit 72,309 70,423Net operating expenses 51,920 52,089Operating profit before exceptional 20,389 18,334itemsExceptional itemsRestructuring costs 639 5,076Release of excess restructuring (171) -provisionGain on disposal - (2,315)Exceptional items 468 2,761Operating profit 19,921 15,573Finance income 924 1,158Finance costs (12) (377)Profit on ordinary activities before 20,833 16,354taxTax on profit on ordinary activities 3,995 3,163Profit attributable to equity 16,838 13,191shareholdersDividend per share paid 35.75 p 32.25 PDividend paid (£'000) 6,751 6,077Dividend per share proposed 28.00 p 24.75 PDividend proposed (£'000) 5,449 4,817Basic earnings per share 86.75 p 69.65 PFully diluted earnings per share 85.65 p 68.15 P Record date: 9th May, 2008 Ex-div date : 7th May, 2008 The financial information set out in this announcement does not constitutestatutory accounts. The financial information for the year ended 27th January,2007 is derived from the statutory accounts for that year which have beendelivered to the Registrar of Companies. The auditors have reported on thoseaccounts and their report was unqualified and did not contain a statement underS237 Companies Act 1985. A.G.BARR p.l.c. Statement of Recognised Income and Expense for the year ended 26th January, 2008 Group Company 2008 2007 2008 2007 £000 £000 £000 £000Actuarial gain / (loss) 5,167 (907) 5,167 (907)recognised on definedbenefit pension plansDeferred tax on items taken (2,649) 366 (2,649) 366directly to equityCurrent tax on items taken 909 - 909 -directly to equityNet cost recognised directly 3,427 (541) 3,427 (541)in equityProfit for the period 16,838 13,191 16,668 13,057Total recognised income and 20,265 12,650 20,095 12,516expense for the periodAttributable to equity 20,265 12,650 20,095 12,516shareholders A.G.BARR p.l.c. Balance sheets As at 26th January, 2008 Group Company 2008 2007 2008 2007 £000 £000 £000 £000Non-current assetsIntangible assets 10,656 9,742 10,656 9,742Property, plant and 53,373 52,278 52,751 51,402equipmentInvestment in subsidiaries - - 205 205Deferred tax assets - 699 - 731 64,029 62,719 63,612 62,080Current assetsInventories 12,339 11,409 12,285 11,299Trade and other 25,965 25,406 25,634 24,983receivablesCash at bank 17,899 19,097 17,593 18,957Current tax 557 - 648 14Assets classified as held 2,910 - 2,864 -for sale 59,670 55,912 59,024 55,253 Total assets 123,699 118,631 122,636 117,333 Current liabilitiesTrade and other payables 28,163 28,776 29,085 29,347Provisions 284 2,262 284 2,262Current tax - 59 - - 28,447 31,097 29,369 31,609Non-current liabilitiesDeferred income 72 73 72 73Retirement benefit 8,009 16,084 8,009 16,084obligationsDeferred tax liabilities 2,393 - 2,388 - 10,474 16,157 10,469 16,157 Capital and reservesattributable to equityshareholdersCalled up share capital 4,865 4,865 4,865 4,865Share premium account 905 905 905 905Own shares held (3,717) (4,439) (3,717) (4,439)Share options reserve 964 1,923 964 1,923Retained earnings 81,761 68,123 79,781 66,313 84,778 71,377 82,798 69,567 Total equity and 123,699 118,631 122,636 117,333liabilities A.G.BARR p.l.c. Cash Flow Statements for the year ended 26th January, 2008 Group Company 2008 2007 2008 2007 £000 £000 £000 £000Operating activitiesProfit on ordinary 20,833 16,354 20,628 16,166activities before taxAdjustments forInterest receivable (924) (1,158) (913) (1,152)Interest payable 12 377 12 377Depreciation of property,plant and equipment 6,668 5,654 6,393 5,381Impairment of plant - 300 - 300Impairment of assetsclassified as held for sale 96 - - -Amortisation of customer 233 160 233 160relationshipsShare options costs 385 359 385 359Gain on sale of property,plant and equipment 33 (1,485) 33 (1,485)Government grants written (1) (538) (1) (538)backOperating cash flows before 27,335 20,023 26,770 19,568movements in workingcapital Increase in inventories (930) (1,727) (986) (1,703)Increase in receivables (559) (1,893) (651) (1,807)(Decrease) / Increase in (1,922) 6,212 (1,571) 6,236payablesDecrease in retirement (2,855) (1,071) (2,855) (1,071)benefit obligationsCash generated by 21,069 21,544 20,707 21,223operations Tax on profit paid (3,259) (4,786) (3,216) (4,734)Net cash from operating 17,810 16,758 17,491 16,489activities Investing activitiesAcquisition of Strathmore - (15,537) - (15,537)water businessAcquisition of intangible (892) - (892) -assetsProceeds on sale ofproperty, plant andequipment 977 6,760 927 6,722Purchase of property, plantand equipment (12,448) (14,501) (12,234) (14,216)Interest received 924 1,158 913 1,152Net cash used in investing (11,439) (22,120) (11,286) (21,879)activities Financing activitiesPurchase of own shares (2,227) (1,052) (2,227) (1,052)Sale of own shares 1,421 553 1,421 553Interest paid (12) (377) (12) (377)Dividends paid (6,751) (6,077) (6,751) (6,077)Net cash used in financing (7,569) (6,953) (7,569) (6,953)activitiesNet decrease in cash and (1,198) (12,315) (1,364) (12,343)cash equivalents Cash and cash equivalents 19,097 31,412 18,957 31,300at beginning of periodCash and cash equivalents 17,899 19,097 17,593 18,957at end of period This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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