Stock Market News
Rising costs negate revenue improvement at Robinson
Plastic and rigid box designer and manufacturer Robinson reported a 6% improvement in first-half revenue on Wednesday, to £13.5m, which its board said was lifted by "favourable exchange rates" and higher resin prices being passed on to customers.
The AIM-traded firm said allowing for those effects, sales volumes in the six months to 30 June were very similar to 2016.
It said increased costs, including some resin costs not yet passed onto customers, had reduced gross margins, and operating expenses had been increased primarily by the company's action to strengthen the sales team.
"The resulting profit before tax was £0.3m lower than the same period last year at just above break-even for the first six months," the board explained in its statement.
"In addition to the largely temporary effect of resin prices, the lower margins are also as a result of sales mix factors such as consumers trading down from premium branded products in some sectors.
"As we have reported previously, new business gains have been secured but have taken longer to bring to fruition."
Robinson said that, with the amortisation of intangible assets and depreciation together amounting to £1.1m, the cash generated from operating activities of £0.9m was "sufficient" to cover the final dividend for 2016 and the loan repayments, but not all the net capital reinvestment,
It said that, at £0.8m, was mainly equipment associated with new business yet to come on stream.
"Net debt therefore increased by £0.3m to end the period at £5.2m," the board added.
"A final dividend, with respect to 2016, of 3p was paid to shareholders on 1 June."
Looking at its property portfolio, Robinson said the sale of surplus properties in Chesterfield was "progressing", and developments for the Walton Mill and Boythorpe Works sites were being discussed with potential tenants and buyers.
That process was likely to take several more months, but the company did expect some realisations in 2018.
"We do expect to see sufficient new business coming through in the second half to achieve growth in revenue for the year as a whole and we expect to continue to build the pipeline for further growth in 2018," the board said of the firm's outlook.
"Re-organisation of manufacturing to achieve efficiencies and investments in capital equipment to improve capacity and capability are being carried out to support this growth and help to recover margins."
The board said it approved an interim dividend of 2.5p - precisely in line with last year - to be paid on 2 October to shareholders on the register at 1 September.
The AIM-traded firm said allowing for those effects, sales volumes in the six months to 30 June were very similar to 2016.
It said increased costs, including some resin costs not yet passed onto customers, had reduced gross margins, and operating expenses had been increased primarily by the company's action to strengthen the sales team.
"The resulting profit before tax was £0.3m lower than the same period last year at just above break-even for the first six months," the board explained in its statement.
"In addition to the largely temporary effect of resin prices, the lower margins are also as a result of sales mix factors such as consumers trading down from premium branded products in some sectors.
"As we have reported previously, new business gains have been secured but have taken longer to bring to fruition."
Robinson said that, with the amortisation of intangible assets and depreciation together amounting to £1.1m, the cash generated from operating activities of £0.9m was "sufficient" to cover the final dividend for 2016 and the loan repayments, but not all the net capital reinvestment,
It said that, at £0.8m, was mainly equipment associated with new business yet to come on stream.
"Net debt therefore increased by £0.3m to end the period at £5.2m," the board added.
"A final dividend, with respect to 2016, of 3p was paid to shareholders on 1 June."
Looking at its property portfolio, Robinson said the sale of surplus properties in Chesterfield was "progressing", and developments for the Walton Mill and Boythorpe Works sites were being discussed with potential tenants and buyers.
That process was likely to take several more months, but the company did expect some realisations in 2018.
"We do expect to see sufficient new business coming through in the second half to achieve growth in revenue for the year as a whole and we expect to continue to build the pipeline for further growth in 2018," the board said of the firm's outlook.
"Re-organisation of manufacturing to achieve efficiencies and investments in capital equipment to improve capacity and capability are being carried out to support this growth and help to recover margins."
The board said it approved an interim dividend of 2.5p - precisely in line with last year - to be paid on 2 October to shareholders on the register at 1 September.
Related share prices |
---|
Robinson (RBN) share price |
Stock News headlines are gathered from financial news sources around the web. Views and opinions on each item are from their respective authors and website. They are not opinions of LiveCharts.co.uk
Get a free widget for your website with our latest headlines.
You can now add our live prices and new headlines to your website.The news widget features quotes for Oil prices, spot Gold price and Indices plus a choice of news channel for healines.
Top Shares pages
- Share price quotes
- Share charts
- Share watch list
- Company Results Calendar
- Top Large UK Shares
- UK Market Sectors
- Stock market news
- Company news
- Share tips
- A-Z company search
More share features
POPULAR Share Prices
- Royal Mail share price
- Lloyds share price
- HSBC share price
- Barclays share price
- Prudential share price
- Santander share price
- RBS share price
- Diageo share price
- Standard Life Share Price
- BP share price
- Vodafone share price
- British Airways
- Centrica share price
- Tesco share price
- Taylor Wimpey Share Price
- National Grid
- GKP Share Price
- Marks and Spencer
- Rolls Royce
- Rio Tinto
- Morrisons Share Price
- Aviva Share Price
- ASOS Share price
- RPT Share Price
- SXX Share Price
- Easyjet Share Price
- Next Share Price
- Thomas Cook Share Price
- SSE Share Price
- IAG Share Price
- Boohoo share price
- Greene King Share Price
- Marstons share price
- NUOG share price
- UKOG share price
- SOLG share price