Howden Joinery full year profit ticks up, "well-positioned" for 2016

For the year to the end of December, pre-tax profit rose to £219.6m from £188.8m in 2014, on revenue of £12.2bn up from £1.1bn.

The company, which supplies kitchen and joinery products, said its UK depot revenue increased 11.9% to £1.2bn.

Basic earnings per share came in at 27.3p compared with 23.2p the previous year and Howden recommended a final dividend of 7.1p. This took the full year dividend to 9.9p per share, up from 8.4p in 2014.

In addition, Howden said it would return a further £55m to shareholders through a share repurchase programme.

The group said it opened 30 new depots in the UK and pushed forward with an expanded trial in Continental Europe, opening five additional depots in northern France and its first outlet in Holland.

Chief executive Matthew Ingle said: “We have continued to invest in all aspects of the business, improving our operations, pursuing the growth opportunities before us and taking advantage of better market conditions.

"We are well positioned and look forward to continued growth in 2016. We will continue to invest in the business, to ensure that we can take advantage of the short and long-term growth opportunities that we foresee, and to address the challenges of a more complex market and security of supply. This investment will be in both our day-to-day operations and our supply chain capacity.”

For the first two months of the year, UK depot revenue rose 7.1%, in line with the company’s expectations, and Howden said trading conditions seen last year have continued into the early part of 2016.

The company plans to open 30 new depots in the UK, two more depots in northern France, a second, larger outlet further south in France, and a similar outlet in Germany.

At 1040 GMT, shares were up 1.7% to 497.00p.