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(Alliance News) - Tandem Group PLC said Monday it swung to a profit for the first half of 2019, as revenue grew on a stronger performance from its licensed properties.
The toys and bicycles manufacturer also announced the appointment of Mark Taylor as non-executive director, with effect from Tuesday. Taylor is currently part of audit firm Grant Thornton LLP, as chair of the Grant Thornton Pensions Fund.
For the six months to the end of June, Tandem reported pretax profit of GBP370,000, compared to a loss of GBP348,000 the year before.
Revenue increased by 27% to GBP16.0 million, from GBP12.7 million the prior year. This was on strong results from the group's licensed properties, including LOL Surprise! Peppa Pig and Disney licenses such as Spider-Man and Toy Story.
Tandem's bicycle brands saw a mixed performance, with the Squish lightweight brand remaining strong, but the Dawes and Claud Butler brands reporting a challenging period amid lower consumer bicycle demand.
Looking ahead, both the toys and bicycle segments have made a similar performance into the second half to date.
Tandem declared an interim dividend of 1.56 pence, up 9.9% from 1.42p the year before.
"The potential threats on the horizon that we previously alluded to remain in place. Whilst we shouldn't seek to 'blame' Brexit, we remain cautious as to the impact that it will have, should it materialise soon, with potentially uncertain future import duty rates and with regards to consumer spending which is discretionary for the type of products that we supply," said Chair Mervyn Keene.
"Despite these threats we look forward to the rest of the year with some confidence and expect to deliver a satisfactory result to our stakeholders for the full year," Keene added.
Shares in Tandem Group were up 8.1% at 200.00 pence on Monday.
By Dayo Laniyan; dayolaniyan@alliancenews.com
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