(Alliance News) - Portmeirion Group PLC on Wednesday reported on a strong festive trading season and said it expects its full-year revenue to beat expectations.
Shares in Portmeirion plunged 16% to 234.00 pence each in London on Wednesday morning.
The Stoke-on-Trent, England-based pottery maker said 2023 sales are expected to be at least GBP102 million, which is "marginally ahead" of market consensus.
While this is 10% higher than pre-Covid 2019 levels, it is lower than the GBP110.8 million in revenue reported for 2022, as anticipated.
This decline was driven by weaker sales in North America and South Korea, amid "weaker consumer sentiment", as well as destocking by some of Portmeirion's major retail customers.
Nevertheless, the manufacturer said it is "encouraged" by stronger consumer demand in the fourth quarter of 2023 for its Christmas ranges. Portmeirion also noted that while UK ceramic sales were flat annually, they rose 9% for the final eight weeks of the year compared to 2022.
In its rest of world markets, sales jumped 13% annually, Portmeirion added.
Looking ahead, Portmeirion expects sales to grow in 2024, as well as a "healthy operating margin improvement". However, the company also anticipates that 2024 will be a "challenging year" given ongoing macro uncertainty, nudging customers to be more cautious in relation to order flow. Portmeirion also expects to continue to incur higher costs during the year.
Chief Executive Officer Mike Raybould said: "We are excited about the opportunity to further expand our customer base, both within our core markets, but also through leveraging our well-known brands across ROW markets...Whilst we expect market conditions to remain challenging in the first half of 2024, particularly in the US and South Korea, we expect to see growth across the full year, and we are confident in our long-term strategic progress and the market share gains we are making."
The company will publish its 2023 financial results in late March.
By Sabrina Penty, Alliance News reporter
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Portmeirion (PMP)