Mulberry Defies Slump To Bag 358% Profit Rise

June 16th, 2011 - 

Luxury fashion brand Mulberry, which numbers the likes of Kate Moss and Cheryl Cole among its fans, has reported a 358% jump in pre-tax profit to £23.3m.

The label, best known for its handbags, including a line named after model and TV presenter Alexa Chung, increased its like-for-like sales by 43% in the year to the end of March.

Its total retail sales were worth £73.5m.

Mulberry ‘s chairman, Godfrey Davis, said the company had delivered a “step change in profitability”.

“Strong demand has continued in all markets has continued into the new financial year and the outlook for the Mulberry brand is positive.”

Its share price has risen by more than 500% in the last year.

Online sales at the company grew by 64% in the last year, and now account for 8% of Mulberry’s sales.

The company said sales at its New York and Paris stores grew by 122% and 151% respectively.

It has doubled the production of women’s handbags as a result of the rapid increase in demand and is expanding capacity at its Somerset factory by 30%, creating some 50 new manufacturing jobs.

Despite its record profits, Mulberry has remained cautious about future sales while it continues to expand its international operations.

The figures for the current financial year, to June 4, show like-for-like sales were up 42% on the same period last year.

Established in 1971, Mulberry has 86 stores worldwide, including 44 in the UK.

In addition to Chung, Moss and Cole, the brand has a number of high-profile followers, including Kate Bosworth and Gemma Arterton.

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Ashtead full-year profit up on U.S. rental growth

June 16th, 2011 - 

LONDON (Reuters) – Industrial equipment hire company Ashtead said a continued shift to rentals from ownership left it well placed for 2012, after posting full-year pretax profit in line with expectations.

The FTSE 250 company, which hires out equipment from diggers to small tools, on Thursday said the trend of contractors renting rather than buying equipment had continued in the face of limited financing and a slow construction recovery.

Pre-tax profit for the year to the end-April was 31 million pounds against 5 million in 2010 — a year blighted by weak construction markets.

Results for 2011, bolstered by a 10 percent revenue rise in its largest market — U.S. Sunbelt operations — compared with a consensus of 29.47 million pounds, according to a Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S poll of 11 analysts.

Shares in the company, which hit a 52-week high of 209.2 pence in April, were down 4.33 percent to 170.2 pence at 0742 GMT in London on Thursday.

“Although continued challenging end-market conditions are likely to constrain upgrades, we expect consensus FY12 pretax profit to move to the high 50 million pounds. We remain a buyer on the basis of the strong long-term structural growth story in the U.S.,” Investec analysts said in a note.

Sunbelt, which generates more than 80 percent of Ashtead’s revenue, benefitted from a well-timed increase in fleet and prices, as well as a first-time contribution from Empire Scaffold, acquired in January.

In its UK market, full-year revenue grew 1 percent and Ashtead said it could benefit from an improving outlook for UK housebuilders, which have reported better consumer confidence since January.

“We would hope to benefit from a supply constraint rather than a demand recovery. Yes, there are tentative signs of a recovery in residential, but that’s going to have to compensate for a hell of a big decline in UK public sector work,” Chief Executive Geoff Drabble told Reuters.

In current trading, the firm reported an 11 percent rise in UK rental revenue for May, with revenue in the U.S. for the same month up 21 percent.

Ashtead said it remained cautious in the short term on its outlook for end-construction markets, particularly in the UK, but a structural shift in the U.S. rental market left it well placed.

The company, which in March raised full-year expectations after a narrower loss in its third quarter, proposed a final dividend of 2.07 pence, making 3 pence for the year.

(Editing by Kate Holton and David Hulmes)

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