Johnson Service Share News (JSG)

(Sharecast News) - Textile services outfit Johnson Services upped its interim dividend on Tuesday after a "strong" first-half performance left the group raising its full-year guidance.
Pretax profits grew 8.6% in the six months ended 30 June to £15.2m, while revenues rose 9.8% to £167.1m.

Net debt did widen to £130.5m from the £91.2m seen at the midway point of the prior trading year, but on the back of that strong performance, the AIM-listed group upped its interim dividend by 15% to 1.15p.

Chief executive Peter Egan said: "This is a strong performance reflecting excellent sales growth, the benefits of recent acquisitions and continued high levels of customer retention across all market sectors.

"We are particularly pleased with the strength and quality of our organic performance which has been achieved by investing capital in our operations giving increased production capacity to meet growing customer demand."

Egan added that the good momentum seen across the group in the first half had continued into the second and, in view of the encouraging performance over the summer months, Johnson anticipates that its results for the full-year will be "slightly ahead of current expectations".

As of 1340 BST, Johnson shares had picked up 0.98% at 165p.