City briefs: Portmeirion; Tandem

Portmeirion, the manufacturer, designer and distributor of homewares has reported record revenue of £45.5m during the first half of the year, a 5% increase over last year.

The Stoke-on-Trent-based firm, which operates under the Portmeirion, Spode, Royal Worcester, Pimpernel, Wax Lyrical and Nambé brands is 30% ahead of pre-pandemic levels as it expands its customer base.

Headline profit before tax also grew by 30% to £2m (H1 2021: £1.5m).

Mike Raybould, Chief Executive of Portmeirion said: “Whilst we are not immune to the significant macro headwinds initiated by the war in Ukraine, our brands remain in strong demand around the world, and we have seen encouraging year on year growth continue through July and August.

“Although the ongoing impact of input cost inflation and labour market disruption is more significant than previously forecast we still expect to grow operating margins in the short term in 2022 and see significant upside in the medium and long term as and when macro-economic conditions normalise and the full value of our brands and business transformation becomes clear”.

Portmeirion has therefore reintroduced its interim dividend which was postponed during the Covid-19 pandemic at 3.50p per share.

Designer and retailer of sports and leisure equipment Tandem has revealed disappointing interim results.

Group revenue in the six months to 30 June 2022 decreased by 33% to £12.9m compared to £19.3m in the six months to 30 June 2021. 

There was a 28% decrease in gross profit from £6.1 million to £4.4 million.  Gross profit margin increased to 34.0% compared to 31.5% in the prior period primarily as a result of favourable foreign exchange variances.
 
Operating expenses decreased by 7% from £4.1m to £3.8m due to the active management of costs following the reduced levels of turnover.
 
As a result of the above, there was a significant decrease in operating profit before exceptional expenses to £600,000 compared to £2m in the prior year period. 

Despite prevailing economic challenges, there have been encouraging signs say Tandem, not least from the securing of a significant number of new customer accounts, and recent targeted product promotions have yielded good results.
 

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