LONDON (Alliance News) - Creightons PLC on Tuesday said its pretax profit more than doubled in its recently ended financial year, boosted by the sale of The Real Shaving Co in May and the introduction of new product ranges.
The personal care and beauty products maker posted pretax profit of GBP1.3 million for the year ended March 31, up from GBP851,000 a year earlier, after a GBP768,000 profit was made on the sale of The Real Shaving Co early in the financial year.
Creightons noted that it managed to maintain revenue largely in line with the year before, at GBP21.2 million compared to the GBP21.1 million previously. It offset loss of sales from the disposal by increasing sales from its other companies to key private label customers and to new and existing customers in export markets.
The company said export sales came in at GBP1.1 million, up 40% from the GBP806,000 posted a year earlier.
Creightons said this has been achieved in a "highly competitive retail environment where our customers are seeking to improve the value of the offer to their end consumer", whilst its private label ranges continue to face increased price and promotion pressure from big brands and the growth of the value market.
"To combat the effects of lower underlying demand, we have continued to successfully generate sales growth by introducing new product ranges for new and existing customers and by further expanding our reach into export markets," Creightons said.
Creightons offered no dividend for the year, in line with a year earlier, as it said it will be using retained earnings and income from asset disposals to "seek further opportunities for growth".
Shares in Creightons were up 9.1% Tuesday at 9.00 pence.
By Hannah Boland; hannahboland@alliancenews.com; @Hannaheboland
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Creightons (CRL)