- Better than expected full-year revenues and profits
- Growth continued into 1Q 2022
- Maiden dividend of 1.25p per share
Eyewear frames designer, manufacturer and distributor Inspecs (SPEC:AIM) delivered better full-year revenues and profit than the market anticipated and said trading in the first three months of 2022 was ‘ahead of our expectations’.
Sales for the first quarter to March 2022 grew 11.8% to $67.2 million.
Despite supply chain challenges the company said it was confident it could continue to meet its targets and continue to grow in a sustainable and manageable way. Inspecs announced a maiden dividend of 1.25p per share.
CEO Robin Totterman commented: ‘The significant progress we are making proves that our growth strategy is the right one, and I am confident that we will continue to deliver shareholder value in the long term.’
Investors welcomed the positive outlook and marked the shares 1% higher to 290p on Wednesday.
ACQUISITIVE GROWTH
Revenues to 31 December 2021 increased by 420% to $246.5 million which was around 3% ahead of analysts’ forecasts with growth primarily driven by acquisitions.
Eschenbach, acquired in late 2020, contributed $186.7 million worth of sales in 2021. Inspecs acquired the iconic Savile Row courtier brand Hardy Amies in October 2021.
At the end of the year it purchased German distributor BoDe Design. In December 2021 the group acquired EGO Eyewear which has licenses for Barbour Eyewear and Liberty.
Excluding acquisitions, revenues grew a heathy 29% to £52.1 million.
A higher revenue base brought scale benefits which meant the company turned an operating loss of $3.7 million in 2020 into $1.5 million profit. Adjusted earnings before interest, depreciation, and amortisation improved by 375% to $27.6 million.
The company reduced the full-year pre-tax loss from $11.2 million to $9.1 million despite incurring $17.4 million of one-off charges.
INCREASING SCALE
A second factory in Vietnam was brought on stream during the year which increased supply by 72% while Inspecs is planning a third facility due to be completed by the end of 2023.
The new facility will add a further 8,000 square metres and increase production capacity by 71% to 12 million units.
