By Anthony O. Goriainoff
Portmeirion Group said Thursday that it swung to a first-half pretax loss as revenue fell due to increased caution from U.S. customers when ordering and destocking by retailer customers, and that it had a good start to the second half.
The London-listed pottery company–which houses its namesake brand as well as Royal Worcester and Spode–said that although it saw a reduced order flow in the period in its North American market, it expects sales in the region will stabilize and return to growth in due course. It added that its Christmas order book was strong and ahead of the same period last year.
The company said pretax loss was 113,000 pounds ($141,126) compared with a pretax profit of GBP1 million the year before.
Revenue fell to GBP44.1 million from GBP45.5 million.
The board declared an interim dividend of 3.50 pence a share, flat on the year prior.
“We are successfully controlling overheads despite the significant inflationary environment and will continue to target further global synergies in our cost base over the next 12 months,” Chief Executive Mike Raybould said.
Write to Anthony O. Goriainoff at [email protected]
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