Flowers and gifts retailer Flying Brands has cheered investors with half-year profit in line with expectations and the resumption of dividend payments.The company, which bought flower delivery firm Flowers Direct for nearly £3m in May, has also announced the purchase of London florist Drake Algar for £0.5m and the proposed acquisition of the Garden Centre Online for £0.13m.Loss-making collectibles business Benham is on the way out. Heads of agreement have been entered into and a sale is expected to complete in the first half of September.Profit before tax from continuing operations excluding one-off redundancy and acquisition-related costs and Greetings Direct was as forecast at £1.39m compared with £1.88m in 2009.Including the write down in the value of the assets of Benham, group profit before tax sank to £0.48m from £2.74m.There's an interim dividend of 1.6p a share.