Character Group Rescued By A Strong Second Half

LONDON (Alliance News) - Toy company Character Group PLC Thursday reported a profit for the year ended August 31 as a whole, as a much stronger performance in the second half more than offset a poor first half, when it swung to a loss as revenues declined sharply.

Character Group, which makes toys based on characters including Peppa Pig, Fireman Sam and Postman Pat, said that trading momentum has remained strong since the start of its new financial year, with progress made both at home and abroad. It said that it is expecting a better 2014 financial year.

"Our ranges this year are now firmly established, in demand and, with some of them already fully sold out for the 2013 Christmas selling season, we look forward to continued growth," said Chairman Richard King in a statement.

Character reported a pretax profit of GBP725,000 for the 12-month period, after recovering from a loss in the first six months of the year.

However, the profit was a considerable drop from the GBP7.1 million a year earlier, as weak UK sales resulted in a GBP7.8 million fall in revenue.

Despite strong international sales, which rose 25%, group revenues for the year were GBP67.2 million, compared with GBP74.9 million a year earlier.

Character maintained its total dividend for the year at 6.60 pence per share.

Shares in the company were up 2.9% Thursday afternoon at 166.61 pence per share.

By Rowena Harris-Doughty; rowenaharrisdoughty@alliancenews.com; @rharrisdoughty

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