Portmeirion Group PLC on Thursday offered an optimistic outlook for the rest of the year, despite seeing losses widen in the first half on poor sales in South Korea.
Portmeirion is a Stoke-on-Trent, England-based ceramics maker and retailer of homeware brands, including Spode, Royal Worcester and Wax Lyrical.
For the six months ended June 30, Portmeirion reported a pretax loss of £2.6 million, widened from £100,000 a year prior.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation fell to £800,000 from £2.8 million, while basic loss per share widened to 19.18 pence from 0.82p.
Revenue similarly worsened, declining 17% to £36.6 million from £44.1 million the previous year. Portmeirion explained that this was in part down to reduced sales in South Korea.
Accordingly, the firm cut its interim dividend to 1.50p, from 3.50p the year before.
Nevertheless, Portmeirion Group said it expects full-year profit to be up on the year prior, thanks to improving operating margins, in line with market expectations.
Sales in the second half are expected to be broadly in line with the prior year, while the order book for Christmas is ahead of the same period last year.
‘We are pleased with the sales and gross margin growth in the US, our largest sales market. We have added new distribution in the US in the last 6 months and are confident that as the macroeconomics improve that we will see the benefit in our top line sales,’ said Chief Executive Mike Raybould.
‘As previously indicated, the group has seen reduced order flow in H1 2024 from our South Korean market as high levels of stock take time to sell through. However, we are encouraged that our brands continue to be in high demand in this market as evidenced by growing online sales and that our Botanic Garden tableware range remains in the top two for all online brand searches. Furthermore, we are accelerating new product launches to help support this market in the short term.’
Shares in Portmeirion Group were trading 2.4% higher at 227.75 pence each in London on Thursday morning.
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