Design Group Regulatory News (IGR)

17 October 2019

IG Design Group PLC

(the "Company", the "Group" or "Design Group")

Trading Update

Strong first half performance delivering double digit growth

IG Design Group plc, one of the world's leading designers, innovators and manufacturers of gift packaging, greetings, stationery, creative play products and giftware, announces a trading update for the first half of the financial year, which covers the six month period to 30 September 2019.

The Group is pleased to report a strong performance over the period; on track to meet full year market expectations, with the business delivering double digit year on year growth in revenue and operating profit. The Group continues to deliver strong cash generation and as a result we expect year end average leverage1 to show further improvement against the prior year, reaching around 1.1x.

As the Company begins the second half of the year it continues to benefit from a strong order book together with major commercial and operational initiatives and investments throughout the Group, which will support the growth going into FY21.

Commenting on the performance, Paul Fineman, Group CEO, said:

'We are delighted with a strong start to the year and the continued momentum across the business, illustrated by the high level of orders going into the second half. Our robust financial performance is underpinned by the investments made in the business and the operational initiatives undertaken to increase efficiencies.

Our organic growth initiatives throughout the business position us well for FY21 and beyond. These together with an active pipeline of acquisition opportunities throughout all regions provides an exciting outlook for the future."

The Group will announce its interim results on 26th November 2019.

1 - Average Leverage is calculated as the 12 month average debt divided by Adjusted EBITDA. Adjusted EBITDA for the purpose of the average leverage calculation is based on a pre-IFRS 16 basis.

This announcement contains inside information

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