Alliance News) - Warpaint London PLC on Wednesday said revenue and profit both rose last year, increasing its dividend in response.

The Buckinghamshire-based colour cosmetics supplier, which owns the W7 and Technic brands, said pretax profit totalled £18.1 million for 2023, more than double £7.7 million in 2022.

Earnings per share likewise more than doubled, to 18.1 pence from 8.1p.

The firm declared a final dividend of 6.0p per share, up from 4.5p. This brought the total dividend for 2023 up 27% to 9.0p from 7.1p.

Warpaint said group sales rose 40% to a ‘record’ £89.6 million, from £64.1 million the prior year. EU revenue jumped 61% to £45.1 million. UK revenue rose 18% to £32.4 million and US revenue by 37% to £7.3 million.

Sales of Warpaint’s branded products increased 47% to £84.8 million, ‘driven by the group’s lead brand W7’ where they increased 64% to £57.4 million. E-commerce sales ‘continued to accelerate’, more than doubling to £6.2 million.

Warpaint had a cash balance of £9.1 million as of December 31 with no debt, up from £5.9 million at the end of 2022.

‘I am very pleased with the group’s strong performance in 2023 and that this has continued into 2024, with record first quarter sales,’ commented Chair Clive Garston. ‘This reflects the delivery of Warpaint’s consistent and focused strategy.

‘The key to our growth has been, and will continue to be, expanding our presence in large retailers globally, by growing our sales with existing customers, entering into relationships with new ones and increasing our online presence.’

Earlier in April, Warpaint had reported a strong start to 2024 with ‘record’ first quarter sales, up 28% on year to £23.5 million.

Looking ahead, Garston commented: ‘Notwithstanding the continuing volatile economic environment and challenges facing our customers, I am optimistic that the strong performance we have seen in 2022, 2023 and now into 2024 will continue and that we have the right offering and strategy in place to continue to deliver profitable future growth.’

Shares in Warpaint traded 5.9% higher at 497.54 pence in London on Wednesday morning.

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