THE CHARACTER GROUP PLC

("Character," the "Company" or the "Group")

Designers, developers and international distributor of toys, games, and giftware

Trading Update

London: Friday, 17 January 2025: The Character Group (AIM: CCT) will be holding its Annual General Meeting today at 11.00am. Ahead of this, the Group provides the following trading update:

As reported in the announcement of our annual results on 18 December 2024, trading conditions have continued to be challenging. Whilst sales in the four months leading up to Christmas 2024 on a like for like basis have been very similar to that of the prior year level, the Board continues to expect sales and profit before tax and highlighted items in the current financial year ending 31 August 2025 to be at similar levels to those reported in the previous year.

We are excited to be kicking off 2025 with a full showcasing of our portfolio of products at the London Toy Fair at Olympia next week, quickly followed by the Nurenberg Toy Fair in the subsequent week. These two international fairs are the biggest events in our annual marketing calendar for Europe and present us with the opportunity to market and exhibit our existing catalogue of products to customers and introduce, ahead of market launch, the scheduled developments, and additions to our portfolio for the year ahead. The customer previews of our 2025 ranges have been very successful to date, and we are confident that the ranges will perform well for the Group in the coming year.

Coupled with its strong stable of products for 2025, Character continues to benefit from a robust balance sheet, with a healthy net cash position and substantial unutilised working capital facilities in place. The business continues to trade satisfactorily,  and the Board expects profitability (before highlighted items) for the current financial year ending 31 August 2025 to be in line with current market expectations. The Company remains committed to share buybacks and intends to continue with its current buyback programme, subject to the renewal of its buyback authority at the AGM.

As previously announced, two of our long serving Directors will be retiring and stepping down from the Board at the AGM: Mike Hyde, who has been with the Group for 20 years, initially as the Managing Director of our operations in the Far East and then, from 2011, as a main Board Director; and Clive Crouch, who joined the Board in 2016 as an Independent Non-Executive Director. We take this opportunity to once again thank both Mike and Clive for their varied and valued counsel and service to the Group and on behalf of all shareholders we wish them both well in the future. The Company has begun a search to appoint a non-executive director, and shareholders will be updated on this appointment in due course.

The Company is scheduled to publish its Half-year report for the period ending 28 February 2025 in May 2025.

The Character Group plc

FTSE sector: leisure goods:

FTSE AIM All-share: symbol: CCT

Market cap: £50m

Email:  info@charactergroup.plc.uk

Group website: www.thecharacter.com

Product ranges can also be viewed at www.character-online.co.uk

CHARACTER GROUP PLC CCT Stock | London Stock Exchange