City round-up: Franchise Brands; James Cropper

Franchise Brands, the Macclesfield-based multi-brand franchise business, will report a good start to its first quarter trading period at its annual general meeting later this morning.

Executive chairman, Stephen Hemsley, will deliver an update to the meeting, saying: “The group has benefited from resilient underlying demand for its essential reactive and planned services. While the market continues to be challenging, the performance in Q1 has generally improved since the start of the year and, encouragingly, a number of businesses delivered strong performances in March.

“At Pirtek, the franchise businesses experienced System sales growth year-on-year. We have seen a gradual improvement in our more cyclical sectors and some early signs that we may see additional larger project work come through later in the year.

“In the Water & Waste Services division, market conditions are challenging, however, the demand for essential reactive services has remained resilient. The division continues to benefit from efficiencies driven by integration initiatives.”

His statement adds: “Filta North America experienced strong growth in System sales year-on-year driven by good traction from the FiltaMax strategic growth initiative and, in particular, from expanding the range of services. The used cooking oil price strengthened throughout the first quarter and, together with increased volume, delivered a much-improved year-on-year contribution.

“The autonomous B2C Division that includes the ChipsAway, Ovenclean and Barking Mad consumer brands continues to trade respectably, despite the ongoing difficult franchise recruitment environment.

“Good progress is being made with the ‘One Franchise Brands’ strategic initiative to enhance sales, create an efficient overhead structure and drive operational gearing. The major IT projects of a single group-wide finance system and the roll out of Vision across Pirtek are progressing on time and on budget.

“While challenging macroeconomic conditions persist in many of our key markets, including more recently the uncertainty created by the recent US trade/tariff announcements, we are controlling the controllables by driving cost efficiencies and maximising group-wide sales opportunities. We also continue to reduce our sector dependency by diversifying into growth markets.”

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James Cropper advanced materials

Kendal based paper and material business James Cropper Advanced Materials and Paper & Packaging group, expects its results for the financial year to the end of March 2025 to be on course with market expectations.

A slight fall in revenue in the paper division will be offset by slightly higher Advanced Materials revenue.

David Stirling, Chief Executive Officer, said: “Since I joined the Group in January, we have commenced a rigorous assessment of the business, with plans to create further opportunities for mid-term growth in Advanced Materials, a structured and focused programme of work to realise improvements in our Paper & Packaging business, and a focus on cash management.

“That work is progressing well, and I expect to provide a more detailed update in June.”