Acquisitions drive first-half growth at Warpaint London

Colour cosmetics specialist Warpaint London issued its unaudited interim results for the six months ended 30 June on Monday, reporting a 38.7% rise in sales to £18.4m year-on-year.

The AIM-traded company said like-for-like sales were up 7.3%.

It reported 35.9% growth in own-brand sales, with 33.2% growth in close-out sales, adding that gross profit had grown 30.0% to £6.7m.

Adjusted profit from operations stoof at £2.8m for the half-year, down from £3.1m 12 months earlier.

Net cash was £4.6m at period end, rising from £2.5m on 30 June 2017.

The board confirmed a 7% uptick in the interim dividend to 1.5p per share.

“We are pleased with the progress we have made in the first half of 2018,” said joint chief executives Sam Bazini and Eoin Macleod in a statement.

“The Retra acquisition has been successfully integrated into the business and we are confident that our additional acquisition of Leeds Marketing will provide us enhanced access to the USA, the largest colour cosmetics market in the world worth $11bn.”

Bazini and Macleod said the additional revenues in the second half, particularly from Christmas gifting, were expected to result in overall revenue being two thirds weighted to the second half of the financial year.

“With a fixed cost base that is evenly spread over the full year, we expect to deliver overall group earnings in line with management's expectations.

“We remain confident in the opportunities for Warpaint in the future and look forward to delivering against our strategy and promoting our brands around the world.”