Warpaint London Regulatory News (W7L)

14 September 2017

Warpaint London PLC

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

Interim Results for the six months ended 30 June 2017

Warpaint London PLC (AIM: W7L), the specialist supplier of colour cosmetics and owner of the W7 brand, is pleased to announce its unaudited interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2017.

Highlights

H1 2016 numbers are proforma with an explanation in the Financial Review

Outlook

With our strong Christmas orders, which are significantly ahead of last year, we are well positioned and confident that we can deliver improving shareholder returns through increased organic growth and improved margins. The business continues to generate cash with no debt to service and the W7 brand continues to grow in global awareness.

Our e-commerce strategy, the launch of the Very Vegan range and increased Christmas business will strengthen our growth plans for this year and beyond, whilst new senior management roles that have been created will ensure we are able to deliver on growth as the business expands further.

Commenting, Sam Bazini and Eoin Macleod, Joint Chief Executives said: "We have had a positive first half of 2017 as the business continues to grow revenue and generate cash with no debt to service. The W7 brand continues to increase in global awareness, in particular as we execute our e-commerce and social media marketing strategy.

"We remain confident of the opportunities in front of us and look forward to growth in both sales and profits in the second half of 2017."

Enquiries:

About Warpaint London PLC

Warpaint London is a colour cosmetics business, based in Iver, Buckinghamshire. It is made up of two divisions: close-out and own-brand. The second and larger own-brand division consists primarily of the Group's flagship brand, W7 - an extremely creative, design-focused cosmetic brand proposition with a focus on the 16-30 age range, delivering high-quality cosmetics at affordable prices. The W7 brand has grown organically since its inception in 2002 and now contains over 680 items which are sold into high street retailers and independent beauty shops across the UK, Europe, Australia and the US. In 2016, W7 was supplied to over 250 customers in more than 50 countries.

Joint Chief Executives' Review

Warpaint consists of two separate divisions, own-brand and close-out, with the own-brand business being the primary strategic focus of the Group and represented over 83% of the Group's revenue in the six months to 30 June 2017.

The W7 brand primarily sells to high street retailers and independent beauty shops, however, we are very pleased to see that our direct online sales channel is making an increasingly significant contribution to overall revenues. Our overseas sales remain a mixture of direct sales and in country distributors.

Our relationships with our manufacturing partners in China and Europe remain strong and give us the flexibility to choose those manufacturers we feel produce the best product for the best price. The first half of the year has seen a number of successful product launches which brings the number of products in the W7 range to 682.

The Close-out division in the six months to 30 June 2017 represented less than 17% of the overall revenue of the Group, this division sells close-out and excess stock of branded cosmetics and fragrances from around the world to high street outlets, wholesalers and the discount mass market retailers, predominantly based in the UK. Whilst not a core focus for the Group, this side of the business provides a significant source of intelligence on the colour cosmetics market and access to new market trends.

Our e-commerce platform has now been in operation in the UK for over a year and has become increasingly important in terms of sales. We continue to believe that this growth is supported by a more engaged and educated customer base, driven by the success of beauty blogs, celebrity endorsement and social media. Similar marketing strategies will be deployed for our USA and Chinese e-commerce sites.

Strategy

Our mission remains to provide our customers with access to a broad range of high quality cosmetics at an affordable price. Our core strategy is to build an internationally recognised brand in W7 which provides strong foundations for future growth.

Our main export focus remains on China and the USA. Our e-commerce offerings in the USA are now soft launched and in China they will be implemented by the end of this year. New senior management staff in sales and product development have integrated successfully into the W7 branded cosmetics business.

Brands

Our brand strategy remains focused on developing our flagship and most established brand, W7, which delivers high quality cosmetics at affordable prices to consumers through our creative design process and rapid production by our overseas manufacturing partners.

We ensure that all of our products are eye catching, with creative names and bold packaging. Our operational structure continues to allow for a short lead time enabling our on trend products to be available to consumers faster than the majority of our competitors. This has been demonstrated by the launch, in the first half of the year, of our Very Vegan range that has had very encouraging levels of initial sales and interest.

Products

Warpaint remains focused on colour cosmetics, which it separates into three main categories:

Our range of accessories now includes our recently introduced cosmetics bag range, with 52 designs on sale and advance Christmas orders are encouraging.

W7's largest selling product categories remain eye products, face make-up and lip products, which together represented 86% of the W7 revenue in the first half of the year.

The W7 Christmas range is becoming increasingly important to the Group and the number of products now available for this Christmas has trebled since 2016.

Customers & Geographies

The majority of our largest clients remain export customers in the USA, Australia and Europe. In 2016 our top ten W7 customers represented 56.3% of revenues; this has grown to 60.3% for the first half of 2017. Our W7 USA distributor, which sells to customers across the country, has expanded from 12.3% of W7 sales in 2016 to 13.6% in H1 2017.

International expansion continues and it is particularly pleasing that W7 is now sold in 56 countries across the world. An increase of 13 countries since 30 June 2016.

USA

We have continued to see growth in the USA, one of our key target markets. Sales were up in the first half of the year by 19% compared to the same period in 2016, and in local currency the increase was 8%, the difference being due to exchange rates.

Europe

Sales in Europe are up in H1 2017 by 6% compared to the same period in 2016, following the receipt of orders late in the period.

Rest of the World

We have made significant progress in the Australian market where W7 is now the sixth most recognised colour cosmetics brand according to our local distributor. Sales in our Rest of the World region are up by 22% in the period, compared to the corresponding period last year.

UK

Trading conditions in the UK in Q2 2017 were challenging as a result of the UK General Election and terrorist activity. However, notwithstanding this, sales in the UK were up by 3% in H1 2017 compared to H1 2016. We have seen improved trading conditions in the UK in Q3 2017 and a record order book for Christmas deliveries has already been secured, which will be delivered during H2 2017. This will result in revenues more weighted to the second half of the year than we have seen in previous years.

Financial Review

The first half of 2017 has seen the Group continue its strategy of building the W7 brand globally, whilst remaining focused on margin. Structurally, new senior management staff in sales, product development and finance have integrated well in the business and the Group is well placed to handle expected continued growth.

In order to aid shareholders' understanding of the underlying performance of the business we have focused our comments on the proforma consolidated statement of income for the half year ended 30 June 2016 compared with the interim consolidated statement of income for the half year ended 30 June 2017.

On 11 November 2016, prior to admission of the Company's shares to trading on AIM, a new group structure was formed. The Interim Results have been prepared in accordance with acquisition accounting standards, which deem that the larger business acquired the smaller business on that date. In order to present to shareholders a more consistent view of the trading of the Group we have prepared a proforma consolidated statement of comprehensive income for the half year ended 30 June 2016, with a reconciliation between the proforma and the interim consolidated statement of comprehensive income.

Headline financial highlights represent the performance comparisons between the proforma consolidated statement of income for the half year ended 30 June 2016 and the interim consolidated statement of comprehensive income for the half year ended 30 June 2017.

The proforma numbers have been adjusted to take account of restructuring changes and other non-recurring items, specifically the inclusion of the trade of the close-out division for the half year ended 30 June 2016. Reconciliation between the proforma consolidated income statement and the interim consolidated income statement for the six months to 30 June 2016 is set out below.

The proforma consolidated statement of comprehensive income for the half year ended 30 June 2016 includes the trade of the larger own-brand division plus the trade of the smaller close-out division for the whole of the six months ended 30 June 2016. The interim consolidated statement of comprehensive income for the half year ended 30 June 2016, includes the trade of the larger own-brand division for the whole of the six months ended 30 June 2016, and none of the of the trade of the smaller close-out division.

The proforma consolidated statement of comprehensive income for the half year ended 30 June 2016 differs from the aggregated figures presented for the same period in our Admission Document because of the inclusion of non-trading group companies.

In the six months ended 30 June 2016 £0.2 million of expenses were treated as exceptional as they were one off payments related to the admission of the Group's shares to trading on AIM in November 2016.

Headline Unaudited Consolidated Income Statements

Reconciliation between the unaudited interim consolidated income statement and the unaudited proforma consolidated income statement for the half year to 30 June 2016

Revenue

Total headline revenue grew by 3.7% from £12.8 million in H1 2016 to £13.3 million in H1 2017. Strategy for growth continues to be global awareness of the W7 brand with W7 revenue continuing to be driven by increased export sales.

The smaller Close-out division had sales in the first half of the year of £2.2 million (H1 2016: £2.6 million). The scheduling of customer deliveries means that Close-out sales for the full year 2017 are on track to be at a similar level to 2016.

Christmas W7 gifting will be significant for the first time this year and this will weight sales to the second half of 2017.

Total statutory interim revenue grew by 30.3% from £10.2 million in H1 2016 to £13.3 million in H1 2017.

Product Gross Margin

Headline gross margin was maintained at the pre BREXIT referendum level, improving very slightly to 38.9% from 38.8% in H1 2016. We continue to mitigate the cost effect of the devaluation in Sterling in a number of ways: with a ratcheted discount mechanism from our key supplier in China, by growing US revenues, and from enjoying margin growth as the W7 brand gains global awareness.

Statutory interim gross margin decreased by 2.1% over H1 2016 to 38.9%.

Operating Expenses

Headline operating expenses (before exceptional items) increased by £0.62milion from H1 2016 to H1 2017, reflecting the costs of the PLC structure, amortisation of intangibles from acquiring the close out business, increased staffing levels and PR initiatives.

Statutory interim operating expenses (before exceptional items) increased by £1.11 million from H1 2016 to H1 2017 and grew in the main because of the factors outlined above, combined with the exclusion of the Close-out business in the statutory 2016 interim numbers.

Profit Before Tax

Group headline Profit Before Tax was £2.9 million compared to £3.1 million for H1 2016, a decrease of 7.4%. Adding back the additional operating expenses detailed above for the PLC costs and the amortisation of intangibles would adjust the Profit Before Tax to £3.2million for H1 2017, a 3.2% increase on H1 2016.

Group statutory interim Profit Before Tax was £2.9 million compared to £2.8 million for H1 2016, an increase of 1.3%.

Exceptional Items

Certain expenses have been treated as exceptional as they were one off legal and professional fees incurred in relation to the admission of the Group's shares to trading on AIM in November 2016. In the six months ended 30 June 2016 £0.2 million of expenses had been treated as exceptional.

Tax

The interim tax rate for the Group for H1 2017 was 19.25%. We expect the tax rate on adjusted profits to be approximately 19.25% for the full year 2017 and then falling in line with the UK Government measures to reduce corporation tax to 17% by 2020.

Earnings Per Share

The statutory interim basic and diluted earnings per share was 3.59p in H1 2017.

EMI Shares

On 29 June 2017 options were granted over 277,788 ordinary shares of 25p each in the Company under the Warpaint London PLC Enterprise Management Incentive Scheme. The options provide the right to acquire 277,788 ordinary shares at an exercise price of 237.5p per ordinary share. The options had no dilutive impact on earnings per share in the period.

Cash Flow and Cash Position

Cash generated from operations was £0.04 million compared to £1.46 million in 2016 H1, reflecting the payment before the end of the half year for inventory for the increased Christmas gifting business in 2017. Management continue to monitor trade receivables and stock levels as the business continues to grow.

The Group's net cash balance increased by £1.3 million to £2.5 million as at 30 June 2017 (30 June 2016 £1.2million).

We expect the capital expenditure requirements of the Group to continue to be modest. £0.09 million was spent in H1 2017 on new office space for additional staff, the purchase of a promotional taxi for the W7 brand and general fixtures and plant upgrades.

Balance Sheet

The Group's balance sheet remains in a very healthy position with no debt. Net assets totaled £16.6 million at 30 June 2017, with the majority made up of liquid assets of stock, trade receivables and cash.

Included in the balance sheet is £0.5 million of goodwill and £1.3 million of intangible fixed assets arising from the acquisition accounting adopted to reflect the purchase of the close-out business by the much larger W7 own-brand colour cosmetics business in November 2016, in preparation for the Group joining AIM.

Dividend

The Board is pleased to declare an interim dividend of 1.4p per share, to be paid on 17 November 2017 to shareholders on the register at close of business on 3 November 2017. The shares will go ex-dividend on 2 November 2017.

Outlook

With our strong Christmas orders, which are significantly ahead of last year, we are well positioned and confident that we can deliver improving shareholder returns through increased organic growth and improved margins. The business continues to generate cash with no debt to service and the W7 brand continues to grow in global awareness.

Our e-commerce strategy, the launch of the Very Vegan range and increased Christmas business will strengthen to our growth plans for this year and beyond, whilst new senior management roles that have been created will ensure we are able to deliver on growth as the business expands further.

Samuel Bazini Eoin Macleod Neil Rodol

Chief Executive Officer Chief Executive Officer Chief Financial Officer 

14 September 2017 14 September 2017 14 September 2017

WARPAINT LONDON PLC

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF COMPREHENSIVE INCOME

For the period ended 30 June 2017

WARPAINT LONDON PLC

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITION

As at 30 June 2017

WARPAINT LONDON PLC

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF CASH FLOW

For the period ended 30 June 2017

WARPAINT LONDON PLC

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF CHANGES IN EQUITY

For the period ended 30 June 2017

WARPAINT LONDON PLC

NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

For the period ended 30 June 2017

1. Basis of preparation

The consolidated interim financial information has been prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards, International Accounting Standards and Interpretations (collectively IFRSs), as adopted by the European Union.

The accounts have been prepared in accordance with accounting policies that are consistent with the Group's Annual Report and Accounts for the period ended 31 December 2016 and that are expected to be applied in the Group's Annual Report and Accounts for the period ended 31 December 2017. There are new or revised standards that apply to the period beginning 1 January 2017 but they do not have a material effect on the financial information for the period ended 30 June 2017.

The comparative financial information for the period ended 31 December 2016 in this interim report does not constitute statutory accounts for that period under 435 of the Companies Act 2006.

Statutory accounts for the period ended 31 December 2016 have been delivered to the Registrar of Companies.

The auditors' report on the accounts for 31 December 2016 was unqualified, did not draw attention to any matters by way of emphasis, and did not contain a statement under 498(2) or 498(3) of the Companies Act 2006.

2. Profit from operations

Profit from operations is arrived at after charging/ (crediting):

Exceptional costs relate to legal and professional fees and commissions incurred in listing the company on AIM.

3. Finance expenses

4. Tax expenses

5. Earnings per share

Profit for the period used in the calculation of the basic and diluted earnings per share:

The weighted average number of shares for the purposes of diluted earnings per share reconciles to the weighted average number of shares used in the calculation of basic earnings per share as follows: