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(Alliance News) - Robinson PLC on Thursday reduced its dividend for the first half of 2021 as it swung to loss.
The Chesterfield, England-based plastic and paper packaging firm said revenue for the six months to the end of June was up 19% to GBP21.2 million from GBP17.9 million posted a year ago.
However, the company swung to pretax loss of GBP600,000 from GBP1.1 million profit reported for the first half of 2020. This is after gross margin decreased to 17% from 24% year-on-year.
Robinson declared a dividend of 2.5 pence a share, down from 5.5p paid a year ago.
"Across our markets we are seeing a lower-than-normal level of demand in the third quarter due to the ongoing uncertainty across FMCG supply networks and a varying pace of recovery following the pandemic. We are now expecting this to continue for the second half, so we are accelerating our plans to improve our operations for additional cost savings and profitability," noted Chair Alan Raleigh.
The company said it now expects full year operating profit before amortisation of intangible assets to be in the region of GBP2.0 million, down from GBP2.7 million posted for 2020.
Robinson shares were trading 9.6% lower in London on Thursday at 110.75p each.
By Evelina Grecenko; evelinagrecenko@alliancenews.com
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