TRADING UPDATES: Fuels' drives NWF profit ahead of market consensus

Tue, 12th May 2026 15:58

(Alliance News) - The following is a round-up of updates by London-listed companies, issued on Tuesday and not separately reported by Alliance News:

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NWF Group PLC - Cheshire, England-based fuel, food and feed distributor - Given a stronger performance in Fuels, NWF expects full-year adjusted pretax profit to be significantly ahead of market consensus. NWF puts consensus for headline operating profit at GBP14.9 million and headline pretax profit at GBP10.3 million. In the financial year to May 2025, NWF reported headline operating profit of GBP16.3 million and headline pretax profit at GBP13.2 million. NWF says following a disappointing first half trading performance, demand for heating oil normalised during December, in line with expectations, in part due to the arrival of colder weather, leading to a corresponding positive impact on Fuels' performance. While, since the start of March, the oil price volatility has also benefited Fuels. But "in light of this backdrop, visibility remains limited heading into the new financial year, and the board is mindful that the future performance of the Fuels business is difficult to predict," NWF says.

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Kromek Group PLC - Sedgefield, England-based detection technology supplier - Kromek expects to report revenues and pretax profit for financial 2026 in line with market expectations for GBP27.2 million and GBP2.2 million respectively. Results reflect increased revenue in the CBRN Detection division and good underlying growth in the Advanced Imaging division, Kromek says, excluding the "exceptional contribution" from the group's enablement agreement with Siemens Healthineers, as previously announced. Continues to see demand across its end markets during the year, with both divisions making further operational and commercial progress.

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Midwich Group PLC - Norfolk, England-based audiovisual technology company - Chair Andrew Herbert says Midwich continues to make further strategic progress across key focus areas, take market share, develop new revenue streams, drive operational efficiencies and ensure it is ready to capitalise on prospects as market conditions allow sales momentum to build. The "challenging" market conditions seen in recent periods have started to ease in some regions, with the UK and Southern Europe in particular seeing improvements. Its Middle East business has performed in line with expectations in the first quarter, with strong performance in the UK and Southern Europe offsetting continued slow demand in Germany and slower than expected recovery in our Canadian business following the loss of a key vendor in 2025. Herbet says: "We continue to see significant opportunities to both grow faster than the overall market and take further action to drive efficiencies across the business in the current year. In due course and when appropriate we anticipate further expanding our capabilities and geographic coverage through further targeted acquisitions and we remain optimistic about the long-term prospects for the business."

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Pharos Energy PLC - energy company with assets in Vietnam and Egypt - Chief Executive Katherine Roe says it has been a "busy start" to the year. "Our six-well offshore program in Vietnam is almost complete, with five of the six wells successfully drilled, all on time and on budget. These are already contributing to production and reserves growth. In Egypt, we have commenced our six-well drilling campaign, leveraging improved fiscal terms to drive additional value," he adds. Group working interest production for the four months ended April was 5,561 barrels of oil equivalent per day net, in line with 2026 guidance of 5,200 boepd to 6,400 boepd. Revenue for January to April is USD49 million with cash balances at April 30 around USD31 million. "Discussions continue on Blocks 125 & 126 with potential farm-in partners. The board continues to consider and review additional opportunities to expand on the current asset base that can build scale and generate additional returns for shareholders," company says.

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XP Factory PLC - London-based leisure and entertainment company - Expects revenue of more than GBP59 million in the 52 weeks to March 29 compared to GBP58 million the year prior. Pre-IFRS 16 adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation is expected to be marginally ahead of revised market expectations of GBP5.1 million, down from GBP6.6 million a year ago. Escape Hunt owner operated revenue is up 11% with Boom owner operated revenue up 2%. In addition, says trading during financial 2027 has been in line with expectations. Chief Executive Richard Harpham says: "Against a backdrop of well-documented industry challenges, we have continued to outperform industry benchmarks. Escape Hunt continues to demonstrate the strength of its proposition, delivering remarkably strong and consistent returns across the estate. Whilst trading conditions within the Competitive Socialising market have remained difficult, we are confident that Boom, as a scale operator, will prove to be a long-term winner as the industry consolidates."

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Macfarlane Group PLC - Glasgow-based packaging and labelling supplier - Trading is in line with market expectations for 2026, Macfarlane says. Revenue in the first quarter of 2026 was "marginally" ahead of the same period in 2025 with organic growth achieved by both Distribution and Manufacturing operations. Group profit in the quarter was in line with expectations but, as anticipated, behind the same period in 2025 due to the temporary outsourcing of manufacturing at Pitreavie and restructuring actions taken in Distribution. Performance is expected to improve in the second half of 2026 as "we build on the organic revenue growth momentum, benefit from the new equipment at Pitreavie and maintain strong control over operating costs," Macfarlane adds."We welcome the early signs of organic revenue growth in our Distribution business, the resilience in our Manufacturing businesses and the investment in Pitreavie which will enable that business to restore profitability in 2026," says Chair Aleen Gulvanessian.

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By Jeremy Cutler, Alliance News reporter

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