Operational Highlights
Pre-tax profits up 14.9% to a record £23.0m.
Turnover decline of 5.6% predominantly due to Sales and Servicing division.
Profitability in Sales and Servicing substantially improved with lower costs and good sales of laundry units.
Photobooths expansion on track - unit numbers rose by 5% year-on-year.
Manufacturing cost reduction plans on track - substantial benefits expected in 2014 and beyond.
Excellent operating results from laundry units - strong future growth anticipated.
Net cash position of £67.8 million, despite increased capital expenditure and combined tax and dividend payments of £12m.
Interim dividend increased by 20% to 1.8 pence per share.
Further commitment to grow the dividend by 20% p.a for the two financial years 2014/15 and 2015/16.
Board will continue to monitor the scope for further special dividends.
John Lewis, Non-Executive Chairman, said: "The Group has again produced an excellent performance in its stronger half and delivered another record result. It is very pleasing that our photobooth estate is now clearly back on a growth footing as a result of the roll-out of the new Starck-designed booths and entry into new markets, led by China. While the contribution in this period was modest, our new Revolution ® laundry units are producing excellent returns and we remain very excited about the future prospects.
"We have made good progress on costs in past years, but this will be overshadowed by the leap forward we will take in 2014 in reducing the manufacturing costs of both our photobooths and laundry units, by outsourcing to China and Hungary respectively. Not only does this open up the emerging markets for us, it enables us to increase manufacturing capacity with potential decrease in capital expenditure.
"We continued to generate significant levels of cash in the period and the net cash position at the end of October was £67.8 million, an increase of some £6.4 million since the end of April, even after paying tax, dividends and self-financing our capital expenditure. We are therefore increasing the interim dividend by 20% - in line with what we said at the time of our preliminary results."
