Tandem Group's shares surge on promise of increased 2017 profitability

Shares in Tandem Group are up almost a third as investors liked its confident assessment that, despite a degree of macro-economic uncertainty, the group will show increased profitability in 2017.

It added that group operating profit after exceptional items was seen to be ahead of the prior year, with revenue for the 12 months to 31 December 2016 up 12% on the year to £38.4m.

"Margins were under pressure during the second half of the year as a result of sterling weakness and increased import duty on some of our products as we previously reported," the company said in a trading update.

"To compensate for this we implemented a price increase in the latter part of the year, negotiated better buying prices with suppliers and where this could not be achieved, re-sourced to new factories," it added.

"As a result of these actions we expect to see an improvement in margin in 2017."

At 10:18 GMT, shares in AIM-quoted Tandem were up 29.27% to 132.5p each.