Portmeirion Group PLC on Thursday warned its annual profit was likely to be ‘significantly’ below market expectations as North America sales dropped in the first half.

Shares in Portmeirion fell by 30% at 276.75 pence each in London on Thursday morning.

The Stoke-on-Trent, England-based pottery maker said it expects sales for the first half of the year to be down 3.3% to £44 million from £45.5 million a year prior. Portmeirion partly attributed this to increased caution from customers in the US and Canada, with sales for the North American region down by 14% from a year before.

However, Portmeirion predicts restocking by customers, given resilient underlying end-consumer demand. ‘Our customer demand in North America remains robust for the company’s products supported by the sales out data we have...and the strong forward order book for Christmas, which is ahead of last year.’

Looking ahead, the pottery-maker said it expects profit for 2023 to be ‘significantly’ below market expectations, but noted its balance sheet remains strong and remains focused on long-term growth.

In 2022, Portmeirion reported pretax profit of £1.0 million for the first half and £7.0 million for the full year.

Results for the six months ended June 30 will be published in the second half of September.

Chief Executive Mike Raybould said: ‘Whilst retailer order flow in North America is currently challenging, our data clearly indicates that end customer demand remains robust, indeed is up on last year.

‘Other key markets have performed in line with our expectations, and we remain confident that we are retaining market share gains made in recent years.’

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