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LONDON (Alliance News) - Packaging and labels company Macfarlane Group PLC on Thursday said its pretax profit and revenue both grew in 2015 thanks to strong trading across the business.
Macfarlane said its pretax profit for the year to the end of December grew 21% to GBP6.8 million from GBP5.6 million, well ahead of the 9.9% growth in its revenue for the year, up to GBP169.1 million from GBP153.8 million, thanks to improvements in gross margin to 29.5% in 2015 from 28.8% in 2014.
The company said sales in its packaging division rose 13% in the year, helped by good organic growth, driven by the online retail sector, plus contributions from the One Packaging business it bought in August and from Lane Packaging and Network Packaging, which it bought in 2014.
Manufacturing revenue was down in the year, however, partly due to actions taken by the company to alter the product mix in its labels business, but also from adverse currency movements and demand weakness in export markets.
Macfarlane said it will pay a final dividend of 1.29 pence per share, taking its total payout for the year up 10% to 1.82p.
Chairman Graeme Bissett said the group remains confident the positive conditions seen in 2015 will continue this year and said it will continue seeking further bolt-on acquisitions.
Macafarlane shares were down 7.7% to 56.30p on Thursday.
By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
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