Churchill China increases profits despite cracks in UK restaurant market

Exports now account for the majority of Churchill China’s sales after another year of strong overseas growth.

The ceramics manufacturer increased revenues by 5%, to £53.5m, in 2017 while exports were up 19%. Pre-tax profits rose even faster – up 20% to £7.8m.

Alan McWalter, chairman of Churchill China, said the business has “continued to make progress against our long term targets”.

He said: “Whilst there has been some further benefit from currency this year, we continue to generate real growth in our target overseas markets. Progress over the medium term has been very good with exports increasing by a compound annual rate in excess of 20% over the last three years.”

However the Stoke-on-Trent group has faced more challenging trading conditions in its domestic market, with the well-publicised problems of restaurants weakening demand.

“As we expected, the UK has been affected by more difficult conditions with a reduction in new restaurant openings,” said McWalter. “Revenues in this market have reduced by 6%. We have reviewed our UK market position and changed our approach to reflect current activity levels. We have adapted our management focus and increased the amount of marketing support, including new product development, allocated to the UK.”

Close