Results round-up
Spirent Communications on Thursday launched a company-wide business initiative to pursue emerging technologies and new industries while extending into wider markets.
The telecommunications testing firm said its ‘promise assured’ branding initiative will focus on working with customers and leveraging relationships to further company development of innovative products and services.
Eric Hutchinson, chief executive of Spirent, said: "Exponential data growth and virtualisation continues at pace and we continue to expand our development business with important partnerships for 5G, including our recently announced collaboration with National Instruments for 5G device testing."
Elsewhere, the firm's financial results fell in-line with expectations as it reported that its first-half profit before tax increased 21% to $17.4m compared to the previous year, leading to the firm increasing its interim dividend by 5% to 1.76 cents per share.
The FTSE traded company reported that order intake grew by 3% to $128.9m, mainly driven by interest in cybersecurity and global navigation satellite systems.
Total revenues decreased from £213.6m to £209.2m, which Spirent attributed to its divestment from the Device Intelligence and Developer Tools lines of business.
"We continue to focus on core strategies matched to the growth opportunities offered by global trends to move products rapidly from development into network operations and to radically reduce costs," said Hutchinson.
Pottery maker Portmeirion Group impressed with its performance for the six months ended 30 June, reporting an 11.4% improvement in revenue to £36.9m.
The AIM-traded firm said profit before tax was ahead 29.1% to £2.1m, while EBITDA rose 13.9% to £3.1m.
Earnings per share were 27.6% higher at 15.24p, with the board declaring an 8.1% rise in the interim dividend to 8.00p per share. Net debt reduced by £0.4m to £1.3m year-on-year.
Operationally, Portmeirion said it made “good progress” on growth and diversification in export markets.
It said its home fragrance division, which was acquired in 2016, delivered sales growth of 14.1%, while it also saw online sales growth of 13.5%.
The board highlighted a number of “successful” new product launches during the period, including Sara Miller London Portmeirion and line extensions in Portmeirion Botanic Garden and Royal Worcester Wrendale Designs.
“We are delighted with our strong first half trading performance, which benefits from new product launches and further diversification into new markets,” said non-executive chairman Dick Steele.
“Our strategy continues to deliver revenue and profit growth and we remain confident in our ability to meet full year market expectations.”
Wallpaper and fabrics manufacturer Walker Greenbank reported decreases in sales in what the company branded as a reflection of a “difficult marketplace”.
For the first half of the year, total brand sales were down 5.7% in constant currency compared to the period last year, with UK sales struggling particularly with a drop of 6.8%.
International brand sales suffered a drop of 4.4% and in the US sales dropped 1.6%.
However, Walker saw a considerable increase in licensing income of 40.4%, driven by apparel and a strong performance from Walker’s Japanese licensees.
The firm also said it signed a number of new licence agreements across the period, with licensing income set to “represent a substantial upward step change compared with last year”.
Likewise, third-party sales increased by 11.1% in the first half due to “strong” export growth.
The company said its expectations for the full year remain unchanged, with adjusted profit before tax seen as likely to be in the range of £9.5m to £10m.