Coral profits soar to £1.16m

MOULDINGS injection specialist Coral Products as reported soaring underlying pre-tax profits of £1.16m in its preliminary results for the year ended April 30.

That figure is 130.2% up (2014: £506,000) with revenue climbing 1.2% to £17.4m (2014: £17.22m).

The St Helens-based company has been boosted by an inter group sales increase to £3.1m (£2.3m in 2014) with sales of food packaging contrainers rising to £7m (2014: £6.1m).

Underlying EBITDA increased by more than 35% to £1.9m, maintaining an improvement in cash flow and enabling an investment in new tooling for food containers in line with an increase in demand through 2016.

Revenue from non-media products went up to £14.5m (2014: £10.9m), representing 83% of total revenues.

Meanwile the acquisition of Tatra Plastics Manufacturing Lrtd was completed in July 2014.

There has been a 40% increase in the total dividend for the year of 0.7p (2014: 0.5p) ahead of the acquisition of the assets from Neiman Packaging Ltd in June this year, which is post the reporing period.

Chairman Joe Grimmond said: “I am pleased to report a further year of progress for the Group with revenue up and underlying profit (profit before separately disclosed items) up by 130.2%.

“This profit growth reflects the success of our core strategy of replacing sales of media-based assets with sales of other plastic moulded products whilst maintaining control of our costs. I am also pleased to report an increase in underlying basic earnings per share to 2.12p (75% growth in the year).

“Given raw material price increases, we have focused on driving material reductions in our inventory across the Group as a whole. This has enabled the Group to report a net cash inflow of £452,000 (2014: £60,000).

“The Group’s strategic progress is encouraging, with its increased focus on value-added and innovative products, particularly in the food container, telecommunications and rail industry markets.”