Warpaint London plc (LON:W7L) shares jumped in early trading Monday as the cosmetics firm hiked its interim dividend amid a surge in half-year sales.
The AIM-listed company, best known for its flagship W7 brand, reported like-for-like sales were up 7.3% compared to the first half of 2017, while sales climbed 38.7% to £18.4mln.
READ: Warpaint London acquires its US distributor Marvin Leeds Marketing Services for US$2.16mln in cash
Despite the rise in sales, adjusted operating profits for the period fell to £2.8mln from £3mln a year ago, however, the company said this was due to new hires in the second half of 2017 in its Retra business as well as renting a second warehouse at the start of 2018 for a Christmas gifting business.
The interim dividend was also lifted by 7% to 1.5p per share.
In its outlook, the group said the acquisition of its distributor business in the US, which occurred after the reporting period, would accelerate its growth into the world’s largest colour cosmetics market, adding that its order book at the end of June was “significantly ahead” of the same period last year.
Sam Bazini and Eoin Macleod, joint chief executives of Warpaint, added that additional revenues from the second half, particularly from its Christmas gifting business, were expected to result in a two-thirds weighting of revenue to the second half, with earning to be in line with expectations.
Warpaint acquired its US distributor, Marvin Leeds Marketing Services Inc, on August 2 for US$2mln in cash with two further payments of US$80,000 due on 30 September and 31 December, in a move the company said would allow it to have greater control over its North American sales, as well as opening up further opportunities in Central and South America.
In a separate announcement, the company also said it had appointed Sally Craig as a director of the company with immediate effect.
Craig has been the company's secretary since early 2017 and will be taking up the role of general counsel and company secretary.
Shares were up 4.2% at 247.5p.