Toy firm in the pink with Peppa
TOY licensing firm Character Group announced a 24% increase in sales for the year to August 31 to £85.2m, leading to a significant recovery in profits.
The company, which is headquartered at New Malden in Surrey but has a large distribution centre in Oldham, said that pre-tax profits for the year were £7.6m, compared with a loss of £2.2m in 2009 when it suffered from the collapse of high street retailer Woolworths.
Chairman Richard King said that the firm’s portfolio of brands, which includes Bob The Builder, Fireman Sam, ZhuZhu Pets, Peppa Pig and Doctor Who, performed strongly across the board and predicted that this would continue as it comes to the end of its busy pre-Christmas trading period.
“Our strategy of focusing on developing and refreshing a portfolio of lead brands remains key to our approach and the on-going future success of the business as a whole,” he said.
“By bringing new, innovative and exciting product to market, and building market share, we remain well-positioned to further develop our business both at home and internationally.
It said that short term borrowing had increased to £16.9m, compared with £10.6m a year ago as it needed more money to meet increased demand for its product range.
However, Kind added that the firm “continues to retain solid banking relationships and has substantial headroom under working capital facilities available to it”.
The company declared that as a result of its improved trading, it is to double its final dividend payment to 2p per share.
