MACFARLANE Group’s 2022 preliminary results show a 10% rise in revenue and a 7% increase in pre-tax profit.
The protective packaging specialist revealed that revenue is up from £264.4 million to £290.4 million. Pre-tax profit has risen from £18.6 million to £19.9 million.
Basic and diluted earnings per share was 9.89p, compared with 7.98p for the same period last year – a jump of 24%.
Packaging distribution achieved revenue growth of 8% to £259.7 million, while manufacturing operations grew revenues by 23% to £30.8 million.
Macfarlane Group chair Aleen Gulvanessian said the results were ahead of market expectations, adding, “Our performance in 2022 was achieved against a background of a marked slowdown in spend from the e-commerce sector, following strong growth during the 2021 Covid-19 lockdown periods, and inflationary pressures on operating costs.
“Our packaging distribution business achieved revenue growth of 8% through the benefit of acquisitions, good progress from our “Follow the Customer” strategy in Europe and the recovery of raw material price inflation. Profitability was only slightly higher than 2021 due to the start-up costs for our new distribution centre in the north west of England, strategic investments in our IT capability and inflationary increases in operating costs.
“Our manufacturing operations have had an excellent year, with strong growth in sales and operating profit. We benefited from the 2021 acquisition of GWP, demand recovery in certain industrial markets and the partnership with our packaging distribution business continued to strengthen.
“We were able to fund £11.9m (2021: £14.4m) of acquisition and capital investment activity through our existing bank facilities due to the continued strong operating cash flows and reinvesting the proceeds from the sale of our Labels business in December 2021.
“The pension scheme remains in surplus, with the directors working in close co-operation with the trustees and their advisers to manage investments successfully through volatility in the markets in the second half of 2022.
“The dedication and commitment of all our colleagues has been critical to our success and I thank them for all their hard work in 2022.
“The group has made good progress in 2022 on its ESG commitments. We have commenced the programme to electrify our fleet of delivery vehicles, continued to introduce solar panels at our sites, worked with our customers to move to more sustainable plastic products and invested in an additional Innovation Lab to help our customers reduce their carbon footprint. The board is now more diverse and we have increased our level of engagement with the local communities in which we operate.”
