- Revenue up 42 per cent to £221mn
- Adjusted pre-tax profit doubles to £30.7mn
- Underlying EPS rises 77 per cent to 20.9p
- Dividend per share hiked 57 per cent to 4.7p
- Net cash from operations surges 40 per cent to £27.1mn
Supreme (SUP:172p), a manufacturer which counts B&M, Home Bargains and Poundland as customers, has upgraded earnings guidance no fewer than four times during its 2023-24 financial year and had guided shareholders to expect record full-year profits in a pre-close trading update. It was mightily impressive, with all business segments contributing to the result.
More than 85 per cent of the increase in annual revenue (£57mn) came from its major distribution agreement with two of the UK’s leading vaping brands, Elfbar and Lost Mary. Supreme supplies their vape products to some of the UK’s largest retailers, including Tesco, Morrisons, One Stop and WHSmith Travel. It’s a lower-margin business than the rest of the group’s product lines, but it is capital-light, too. The eye-catching revenue contribution from the two brands propelled gross profit from the branded distribution division up 11-fold to £9.2mn to account for 15 per cent of the group’s profit.