Revenue for designer and manufacturer up 31% to £311 million
Major supplier of greeting cards, giftwrap, crackers and stationery, IG Design Group, reported some impressive financial results today (27 June) for the year ended 31 March 2017.
Revenue is up 31% to £311 million (2016: £237 million), with the profit before tax up 32% to £13 million (2016: £9.9 million). The results highlight the performance of the business in the States and continental Europe as contributing to the growth, with profits in the USA up by 37% through organic growth (including a first year’s payback on recent capital investments in manufacturing).
Other highlights in the statement include: a significant three year commitment secured for the solus supply of greetings cards to Australia’s largest discount chain, record levels of gift bag and greetings card production in the IG Design factory in China and a year of strong growth in the celebrations product category in the UK.
Paul Fineman, ceo, commented: “It is a great pleasure to once again be reporting a year of tremendous progress, with many record outcomes achieved throughout our business. Not only have sales and profits exceeded our goals, but our continued focus on cash generation is such that we have been able to fund growth with fast payback capital expenditure, eliminate year end debt yet simultaneously accelerate dividends from 2.5p to 4.5p. While continuing to perform with strength, pleasingly we are also ensuring our business is well diversified, invested for the future and with a distinct competitive advantage.
Having re-branded as ‘Design Group’, we are increasingly able to leverage our global scale as a diversified, design-led, multi-product category and multi-channel business supported by world-class manufacturing and sourcing operations. We are very well placed to continue to grow organically and through product development and innovation, well-considered acquisitions, capitalising on our growing market share and the excellent momentum prevailing throughout the Group.”
