Portmeirion (PMP) shrugged off the gloom in the UK retail sector to deliver its tenth consecutive year of record sales in 2018, while margins continued to expand.
Growth came from the table ware group’s three largest markets, the US, the UK and South Korea, which account for a combined 74 per cent of revenues. Business in South Korea had been falling in recent years, but management reversed the decline through investments in new product development. Sales in the country were up by a quarter in the year.
The rest of the world division, however, fared worse. Sales were down 4 per cent as the group cut sales to India following trouble with its distributor in the country. Management said performance across the rest of Asia and Europe was “encouraging”.
The company has been focusing on diversifying the business in recent years, introducing new products and building out overseas operations. The resulting improvement in customer and product mix, along with good cost control, saw operating margins climb for the second year in a row – up by 40 basis points to 11.1 per cent.
House broker Panmure Gordon expects adjusted EPS of 77.7p in 2018, up from 71.9p in 2018.
| PORTMEIRION (PMP) | ||||
| ORD PRICE: | 1,065p | MARKET VALUE: | £116m | |
| TOUCH: | 1,050-1,080p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 1,310p | LOW: 905p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 3.5% | PE RATIO: | 15 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 446p* | NET CASH: | £2.3m | |
| Year to 31 Dec | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
| 2014 | 61.4 | 7.6 | 57.6 | 26.5 |
| 2015 | 68.7 | 8.6 | 66.0 | 30.0 |
| 2016 | 76.7 | 7.8 | 59.6 | 32.3 |
| 2017 | 84.8 | 8.8 | 65.1 | 34.7 |
| 2018 | 89.6 | 9.7 | 72.1 | 37.5 |
| % change | +6 | +10 | +11 | +8 |
| Ex-div: | 25 Apr | |||
| Payment: | 30 May | |||
| *Includes intangible assets of £12.9m, or 118p a share | ||||
