Results round-up

Polypipe’s first full year as a listed company saw more massive growth, with the plastic piping and ventilation systems manufacturer reporting strong increases in revenue and earnings in its final results on Thursday.

Revenue at the FTSE 250 firm grew 8% during the calendar year, at £352.9m compared with £327m in 2014. Its underlying operating profit jumped 17% to £54.2m, up from £46.3m, with an underlying operating margin of 15.4% compared with 14.2%.

Polypipe’s UK operations outperformed the group, with the board reporting a revenue increase of 10.6% there.

The company’s underlying profit before tax grew 28% to £48m, from £37.6m, with underlying earnings per share rising 21% to 19.47p, from 16.11p.

On a statutory basis, profit before tax leapt to £41.5m from £16.9m. Basic earnings per share were 17.11p, compared to 6.69p in 2014.

Full year results from Hilton Foods were better than expected but the retail meat packer said its forecasts for 2016 were unchanged for now.

Although volumes were up 5.5% to 244,140 tonnes of sausages, mince, steaks and other juicy cuts to thirteen European countries and Australia, sales for the 53 weeks to 3 January were just below flat at £1.1bn due to the strong pound weighing on revenues to the tune of 7.4%.

Pre-tax profit rose 11% to £28m and earnings per share by 10% to 27.5p, with the total dividend lifted 10% to 14.6p per share.

Cash generated from operations was ahead 10% to £45.3m, helping the group to a net cash position of £12.7m, compared to debt of £7.7m at end of 2014.

Looking forward, the company expects to increasingly benefit from the improved contract with Tesco and the projects with Woolworths in Australia.