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(Alliance News) - Shares in Johnson Service Group PLC were higher Monday as the workspace clothing rental firm reported "strong" financial performance in 2019.
Shares rose 7.5% in early trade on Monday to a price of 196.80 pence each.
Revenue in the year rose 9.2% on the prior year to GBP350.6 million. Johnson Service reported organic growth of 6.5%.
Pretax profit climbed 15% to GBP38.1 million, with the adjusted figure rising 13% to GBP48.2 million.
Cheshire-based Johnson Service has proposed a dividend of 2.35 pence per share, which would take the total dividend to 2019 to 3.5p, a 13% rise on the year before.
"We have continued to deliver strong organic growth complemented by the impact of our recent acquisitions. The combination of these has yielded another solid financial year with impressive growth in group revenues, operating profit and earnings per share," said Chief Executive Peter Egan.
The Workwear division, which provides work clothing rental and laundry services to the food and industrial sectors, delivered a 5.0% revenue increase to GBP135.3 million. Trading was "strong", Johnson Service said.
Johnson Service's hotel, restaurant, & cafe business, or Horeca, posted a 12% increase in revenue to GBP215.3 million. Again, trading was strong, the company said.
"The group's trading performance since the year end has been in line with management expectations. We are looking forward to the opening of our new Leeds site which will bring further capacity on stream and are continuing to plan for investment in our other sites, to increase capacity even further," added CEO Egan.
"We anticipate the group will deliver organic growth across both divisions, whilst continuing to focus on customer satisfaction and investment to optimise operational efficiencies. This, alongside our proven track record in identifying earnings enhancing acquisitions, gives us confidence for the future success of the group," he added.
By George Collard; georgecollard@alliancenews.com
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