Character Options delivers half year profits surge
Character Options has delivered a bumper set of half year figures for the year ended 28 February 2011.
Profit before tax increased to £6.64 million from £3.73 million in the comparable period for 2010, an improvement of 77.8%. Revenue was up 34.8% to £58.1million in the period (2010: £43.1 million).
Basic earnings per share were 20.28 pence, compared to 10.25 pence for the previous half-year period and 20.12 pence for the whole of the last financial year.
Executive chairman Richard King said: "I am delighted to report that results for the first six months of the current financial year were both impressive and satisfying, especially when considering the slowdown at retail caused by abnormally inclement weather in the run up to Christmas and the increasingly difficult retail market experienced since the New Year.
"The bad weather in the run up to December severely reduced High Street sales and resulted in the take up of our product being slower than would otherwise have been the case. This, together with the build-up of inventory for the launch of new range introductions, led to higher stocks at £8.37 million at the end of the period when compared to last half-year (2010: £3.63 million).
"With the vast majority of this stock made up of current ranges, we see no need for any exceptional write-down provisions.
"The Group continues to maintain a strong and healthy balance sheet and remains cash positive.
“We have successfully developed existing brands and new introductions are on-going; our key brands continue to receive enthusiasm and demand from our customers…
“Our strategy remains to seek out and develop exciting products which meet domestic and international market demand. These will come from either from our own portfolio which has been developed in-house or those produced in partnership under licence or through distribution agreements.
“Even though we have seen such strong growth in the first half of our financial year, we have to be mindful of the current difficulties being experienced at the retail level. Whilst we expect a slowdown in sales in the second half, we expect to further increase our market share. Therefore, we remain confident that we shall deliver another solid performance for the financial year as a whole and can see no reason to alter current market expectations.”
Financial highlights
- Revenue £58.1 million (2010: £43.1m) +35%
- Profit before Tax £6.64 million (2010: £3.73m) +78%
- Earnings per Share 20.28p (2010: HY 10.25p) +98%
- (2010 FY 20.12p)
- Interim Dividend 3.00p (2010: 2.00p) +50%
- Strong Balance Sheet & cash positive
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