Galiform's loyal customer-base of small builders have helped it to a strong performance in the first half of 2010, with underlying sales of the kitchens and joinery products it sells through its Howden's depots climbing 2.5 per cent.
Admittedly, that was measured against last year's weak performance, when the grip of the economic downturn saw like-for-like sales plummet by almost 10 per cent. But the recovery appears to be accelerating, with chief executive Matthew Ingle pointing out that the same depot growth rate had climbed to 6 per cent towards the end of the period. Improved systems and manufacturing processes also helped push gross margin up by four percentage points to 58.1 per cent.
That's given the group the confidence to resume its depot opening programme, and it's already opened 16 new outlets this year, in line with its annual target of opening between 20 to 30 depots. Mr Ingle says that in time, the group is likely to exceed its earlier target of 600 depots, and said that with so much growth potential in the UK he's not too worried about the failure to make much progress in France.
Execution Noble expects full-year pre-tax profits of £72.8m and EPS of 8.2p (2009: £68.7m/8.3p), but sees scope for upgrades.
| ORD PRICE: | 69p | MARKET VALUE: | £439m | |
| TOUCH: | 69-70p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 94p | LOW: 35p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | NIL | PE RATIO: | 7 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | * | NET DEBT: | £2.7m | |
| Half-year to 12 Jun | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 317 | 4.7 | 0.5 | nil |
| 2010 | 325 | 21.6 | 2.3 | nil |
| % change | +2 | +360 | +360 | - |
*Negative equity shareholders funds | ||||
