Cake Box serves up tasty maiden interim results

(Sharecast News) - Specialist cakes retailer Cake Box issued a tasty set of maiden results on Monday, with profit, revenue and the dividend all higher.In the six months to 30 September, adjusted pre-tax profit rose 34% to £1.97m on revenue of £8.28m, up 44% on the previous year. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation were up 34% to £2.18m and the company lifted its interim dividend by 17% to 1.20p a share.Franchisee total turnover was up 29% to £14.1m, while franchisee online sales were 86% higher at £1.99m and like-for-like sales grew 4.4% at franchise stores.The company, which completed its IPO on AIM back in June, said it achieved "impressive" growth despite the hot weather, which hit high street footfall and like-for-like sales growth at many of its stores during the summer months.Non-executive chairman Neil Sachdev said: "These results reflect the robust growth opportunity presented by our franchisee store roll-out strategy. I look forward to further progress in the remainder of our financial year. We celebrate 10 years of Cake Box with our staff and franchisees in 2019."Cake Box said its performance in the first eight weeks of the second half has been "encouraging" and it has already opened four new stores."The group is well placed for further progress and the Board remains confident of another successful year of growth," said chief executive Sukh Chamdal.Shore Capital analyst Darren Shirley said the results confirm "excellent progress", with the franchise estate growing strongly, leading to "outstanding" profit growth at all levels.Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said the results were "great" and should help boost sentiment towards the stock after it briefly and unfairly took a knock due to negative read-across from the Patisserie Valerie accounting scandal."The only similarity between Patisserie and Cake Box is that they both sell cakes. The problems affecting the former look to be company-specific rather than sector-wide."The latest financial results from Cake Box suggest the company's offering, selling eggless and fresh cream personalised celebration cakes which can be ordered and collected in an hour, is proving to be a winner with consumers."The next few weeks, encompassing Christmas and New Year, are likely to have a significant bearing on the full year results."At 1030 GMT, the shares were up 2.4% to 180.20p.