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Portmeirion's crockery cracks can be repaired

A trading update blaming the EU referendum result for softness in the UK market is a concern, but we believe its brands can endure.
July 8, 2016

Given it was only in May that upmarket crockery company Portmeirion (PMP) said outperformance in its larger US and UK markets was ahead of expectations and thus counterbalancing weakness in Asia, its latest announcement caught us off-guard. Management said it had witnessed "negative effects on demand" prior to and post-referendum and that India - albeit a tiny proportion of revenue - was not performing well, either. The shares dropped a fifth.

IC TIP: Buy at 844p

But there are reasons not to flee. Its brands are robust and the company has cash on the balance sheet, meaning the half-year dividend will rise by 14 per cent.