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RNS Number : 2630N

Portmeirion Group PLC

19 May 2020

19 May 2020

Portmeirion Group PLC

(the "Company")

AGM Trading Statement

Portmeirion Group PLC, the designer, manufacturer and worldwide distributor of high quality homewares under the Portmeirion, Spode, Royal Worcester, Pimpernel, Wax Lyrical and Nambé brands announces the following trading update ahead of its Annual General Meeting to be held today at 12:00 noon.

As the Company reported on 30 March 2020, we temporarily shut our Stoke-on-Trent ceramic factory in late March. Since that time our teams have worked to implement new safe social distancing procedures in line with Covid-19 secure guidelines issued by the government. We partially reopened the factory on 6 May 2020 at a reduced capacity in order to fulfil existing export orders, and expect to increase our capacity in the coming weeks. Our warehouses in the UK and US have continued to operate safely and efficiently, servicing our ecommerce business without any disruption.

Our UK home fragrance company Wax Lyrical repurposed production lines at its Cumbria-based factory and has continued to produce hand sanitiser for the community, NHS and pharmacies. We forecast to ship in excess of 1 million units during the second quarter of 2020.

With retail stores around the world shut down since March due to Covid-19 lockdowns, our business has been significantly impacted and we expect this to continue through the second quarter until there is clarity around how and when stores will reopen. We have continued to ship export orders to the Far East where retail stores have now reopened, and have seen a significant uplift in our online sales in the UK and US. Our own ecommerce site sales were up by more than 100% in April 2020 over the same period last year and we expect this trend to continue in the coming months.

We believe that the early and swift action we took to minimise cash burn during the Covid-19 crisis will put us in a strong position to thrive once lockdown restrictions are lifted around the world. We expect our cash burn in Q2 2020 to be less than GBP1 million and, as previously reported, our balance sheet remains strong with sufficient committed bank facilities and headroom.

The Board remains committed to maintaining a sustainable and appropriate level of dividend payments over the long term. Whilst we remain cautious about the immediate future we will reinstate our interim and final dividend payments as soon as we feel it prudent so to do, and will next provide an update in our interim results announcement.

We have a robust strategy to leverage our powerful portfolio of homeware brands. Throughout the pandemic we have continued to focus on and progress our new product development pipeline and invest in growing our online sales channels.

Notes: This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014.

ENQUIRIES:

 
 Portmeirion Group PLC: 
 Mike Raybould               +44 (0) 1782 743   mraybould@portmeiriongroup.com 
  Chief Executive Officer     444 
 David Sproston              +44 (0) 1782 743   dsproston@portmeiriongroup.com 
  Group Finance Director      444 
 
 Hudson Sandler: 
 Dan de Belder               +44 (0) 207 796    ddebelder@hudsonsandler.com 
  Nick Moore                  4133               nmoore@hudsonsandler.com 
 
 Panmure Gordon: 
 (Nominated Adviser and      +44 (0) 207 886 
  Broker)                     2500 
 Freddy Crossley / Joanna                       Corporate Finance 
  Langley 
 James Stearns                                  Corporate Broking 
 
 
 N+1 Singer: 
                             +44 (0) 207 496 
 (Joint broker)               3000 
 Peter Steel / Ben Farrow                      Corporate Finance 
 Rachel Hayes                                  Corporate Broking

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END

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May 19, 2020 02:00 ET (06:00 GMT)

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