Borrowing costs impact Norcros interim numbers
Bathrooms and kitchen business Norcos has seen a drop in revenue and profits for the six months to 30 September.
However, the Wilmslow-headquartered quoted company told the markets this morning that it represented a “robust” performance and hasn’t blunted the appetite for acquisitions.
The company is also looking at further acquisitions of businesses it describes as “earnings accretive acquisitions” and claims to have a “well-developed acquisition pipeline and we will continue to assess strategically compelling opportunities.”
Group revenue for the 26-week first half was £201.6m (2022: £219.9m), an 8.3% decrease on the prior year.
Profit before taxation was £11.7m (2022: £14.0m).
Norcros operates under seven brands: Triton, Merlyn, Multipanel (Grant Westfield), Vado, Croydex, Abode and recent acquisition Johnson Tiles, and employs around 2,400 people.
The numbers reflected acquisition related costs of £3.3m (2022: £3.1m), acquisition related advisory fees of £0.1m (2022: £1.5m) and deferred remuneration of £0.5m (2022: £0.3m).
An exceptional cost of £1.4m was recognised in the period in relation to the costs associated with a reduction in manufacturing capacity at Johnson Tiles (UK) in Stoke.
An increase in bank interest costs to £2.5m (2022: £1.2m) due to higher bank base rates also impacted the financial performance.
Thomas Willcocks, Chief Executive Officer, commented: “We have delivered a robust first half performance against a challenging macroeconomic backdrop. Although market conditions remain uncertain, we are confident that the ongoing refinement and execution of our strategy, backed by the strength of our design led market leading brands, will continue to deliver market share gains for the year ending 31 March 2024. We continue to expect full year underlying operating profit to be in line with market expectations.”
