LONDON (Alliance News) - Chocolate maker and retailer Hotel Chocolat Group PLC held its interim dividend Tuesday after profit and revenue rose following a "successful" festive period.
For the six months ended December 30, pretax profit widened 7.0% to GBP13.8 million from GBP12.9 million the year prior. This was after revenue rose 13% to GBP80.7 million from GBP71.7 million the year before.
Hotel Chocolat proposed a 0.6 pence per share interim dividend, unchanged on the year prior.
"This has been another period of progress for Hotel Chocolat with strong growth in sales, profits and cash generation," Hotel Chocolat Chief Executive Officer Angus Thirlwell said.
Operating cash flow rose 18% to GBP29.5 million from GBP24.9 million the year prior. Net cash expanded to GBP21.8 million at the end of the period, up 19% from GBP18.3 million the year before.
"The critical Christmas period was again successful, supported by the launch of our new and innovative Velvetiser Hot Chocolate maker and by a deepening relationship with our customers via the new VIP Me scheme," Thirlwell added. "Both developments will also support our plans for the key spring seasons of Mother's Day and Easter."
"Growth in the UK continued to deliver improvements in profitability which have enabled us to invest in the launch of two new start-ups in New York and Tokyo, both of which are showing encouraging early signs, in terms of customer response and the initial store sales performance," Thirlwell continued.
"Recent trading, including the Valentine's period, is in line with the board's expectations and we continue to make good progress against our key strategic objectives of opening more stores, improving our digital capability and increasing our production capacity whilst testing and learning in two large new territories", Thirlwell concluded.
Shares in Hotel Chocolat were 4.4% higher at 319.50 pence on Tuesday.
