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(Alliance News) - Ramsdens Holdings PLC said Wednesday that financial 2019 "was another strong year" as the company reported a sharp rise in revenue and upped its dividend.
Ramsdens is a financial services retailer and provider operating in currency exchange, pawnbroking loans, precious metals buying and selling, and the retailing of second-hand and new jewellery.
In the year to March 31, Ramsdens reported a 3.2% increase in pretax profit to GBP6.5 million from GBP6.3 million the year before.
Revenue increased 17% in the period to GBP46.8 million from GBP39.9 million the year before.
As a result, Ramsdens proposed a final dividend of 4.8 pence per share, taking the company's total dividend for financial 2019 to 7.2p - which is 9.1% higher than the 6.6p distributed the prior year.
"This has been another strong year of growth and strategic progress for Ramsdens. The group's good performance has been achieved despite external headwinds and reflects the strengths of our diversified business model, our trusted brand, and our value for money proposition," said Chief Executive Peter Kenyon.
The company's currency exchange segment delivered "resilient" results in a "challenging market". In the period, the business saw a 4% increase in customer numbers to 705,000. Ramsdens said the amount of currency exchanged increased 2.3% to GBP496 million.
In the Pawnbroking unit, the loan book jumped 19% to GBP7.6 million as the unit's number of customers increased 5.9% to 36,000.
In Jewellery Retail, gross profit increased by 22% to GBP5.0 million due to the business selling more premium watches and new gold jewellery.
Kenyon added: "Customer demand for our products across our business segments remains strong and the group has a number of clear growth opportunities. The board remains confident that the group will successfully deliver its strategic objectives and make further progress in the year ahead."
Shares in Ramsdens were up 2.2% Wednesday at 173.70 pence each.
