The market has baked in the bad news over at posh crockery maker Portmeirion (PMP) following last month's profit warning, which - thankfully - left little surprise for investors in these numbers. The downside is that its third-largest market, South Korea, hasn't bounced back and full-year sales there are likely to be lower than in 2015. India, too - albeit accounting for only a small proportion of revenue - looks unlikely to repeat last year's success and turnover in the first half was £2m less than the comparative period. If the sales it secured through the two months of ownership of £17.5m acquisition Wax Lyrical are excluded, group sales dropped 3.1 per cent year on year.
Thankfully sales in its biggest market, the US, rose by 10.3 per cent on a dollar basis, which translated to a 17.2 per cent surge once converted into sterling. And while the UK suffered a 1.5 per cent dip in turnover, the performance of its own retail outlets and online sales was strong. The business is also second-half weighted, booking around two-fifths of revenue in the opening half for the past two years.