Shareholders of Patisserie Holdings (LSE: CAKE) will feel like rewarding themselves with a slice of cake to go with their morning coffees, after the leading UK branded café and casual dining group reported pleasing figures in its interim results today.
Pre-tax profit grew a whopping 45%, from £4.8m at H1 2014 to £7m for the six months ended 31 March 2015, while operating cash flows soared by 110.5% to £8m. Revenue lifted 22.2% to £43.7m, while basic earnings per share increased almost 15% to 5.50p from 4.79p.
Patisserie also grew its net cash balance from £0.2m at half-time in 2014 to the £3m reported in today’s results. Additionally, 10 new stores were opened in the period, all of which were funded from operating cash flow.
The company has been on a roll the last six months, its share price rising over 40%. Executive chairman Luke Johnson credits “sales across all of the different formats in the group [continuing to] perform well”, along with several new product launches — including a winter menu and afternoon tea in its Patisserie Valerie stores — showing “pleasing” results.
The group’s other brands chipped in with “encouraging” revenue, too: premium sandwich retailed Philpotts, which was bought by Patisserie Holdings in February last year, saw its business perform “ahead of expectations” and is on track to meet the group’s ‘payback hurdle rate’ set for acquisitions. Druckers, Baker & Spice and Flour Power City all saw revenue growth, too.
While not currently a stock for income investors, management reaffirmed their intention to offer a maiden dividend to be paid in respect of the financial year ending 30 September 2015, with CEO Paul May “confident that we will deliver another set of positive results in line with the board’s expectations at the year end”.
With the UK inflation turning negative in April for the first time on record, a lower cost of living — including the fall in oil prices — has at least eased budgetary concerns for many in the country, and this has been reflected in the success of high-street retailers like Patisserie and Greggs (up over 110% in the last 12 months) as consumers again start to feel able to treat themselves by eating out occasionally.
