MACFARLANE Group has made a ‘solid’ start to 2023, the business has revealed in a trading update.
Chair Aleen Gulvanessian was due to update shareholders on the year to date at the company’s AGM.
Q1 sales and profits are ahead of the same period in 2022. Macfarlane said packaging distribution sales grew by 4% in Q1 2023, boosted by the acquisition of PackMann in May 2022 and new business growth being partly offset by ‘weak’ demand from the e-commerce retail sector.
Manufacturing Operations grew sales by 14% in Q1, with recovery in certain industrial markets enhanced by the acquisition of A.E. Sutton Limited.
The business has completed two acquisitions during the first four months of 2023, the latest being Manchester-based protective packaging distributor Gottlieb Packaging Materials.
Net bank debt at the end Q1 was £100,000, an improvement on the position at 31 December 2022 (£3.4 million).
Expectations for the full year are unchanged.
Aleen Gulvanessian said, “The growth in both sales and profits that we have achieved in the first quarter of 2023 continues to demonstrate the effectiveness of our strategy, the quality of our people and the resilience of our business model.”
