Franchise Brands PLC Q3 Trading Update (1992Q)
October 26 2021 - 2:00AM
UK Regulatory
TIDMFRAN
RNS Number : 1992Q
Franchise Brands PLC
26 October 2021
26 October 2021
FRANCHISE BRANDS PLC
("Franchise Brands", the "Group" or the "Company")
Q3 Trading Update
Record Metro Rod system sales, up 32%, leading to strong Q3
profits
Board c onfident of meeting consensus market expectations for
2021
Franchise Brands plc (AIM: FRAN), a multi-brand franchise
business, provides the following trading update for the three
months to 30 September 2021 ("Q3").
The Group has continued to perform strongly during Q3, with
adjusted EBITDA for the quarter and year-to-date reaching a record
level. This strong performance has been driven by the outstanding
growth of our Metro Rod franchisees, who have increased system
sales for the quarter by 32% year-on-year. Willow Pumps has been
slower to recover from the reduced Covid-related volumes of 2020,
particularly in the supply and installation part of the business
which is reliant on the house-building sector. The B2C division
continues to perform well with 52 new recruits year-to-date, which
is ahead of 2020 and in line with 2019. T he Board is therefore
confident of meeting current consensus market expectations* for the
year to 31 December 2021 (which had been upgraded in July) and
reconfirms the Group's strategic financial target of run-rate
turnover of GBP100m and adjusted EBITDA of GBP15m by the end of
2023.
The digital transformation at Metro Rod and Metro Plumb
continues at pace. Our integrated technology platform, the core
elements of which are the "Vision" works management system and the
"Connect" customer portal, is being optimised with a series of
upgrades to further enhance functionality. The next stage is to
develop an improved engineer interface and scheduling capability to
further improve productivity, which is important in the current
tight labour market. It is our ambition to develop a common
technology platform across all our businesses that will enhance the
end-to-end customer experience and improve the efficiency and
productivity of our business and those of our customers and
franchisees.
We continue to seek opportunities to utilise our considerable
balance sheet strength to complement our organic growth through
earnings-enhancing acquisitions that will either expand or enhance
our B2B division, leverage our existing B2C infrastructure, or
identify a franchise business of scale that would create a third
division of the Group.
Stephen Hemsley, Executive Chairman, commented:
"I am pleased with our Q3 performance which demonstrates the
strength of our organic strategy and look forward to Q4 and the
full year result with confidence. The progress we are making with
our digital platform is already beginning to transform our existing
businesses and will provide a scaleable technology platform to
support the accelerated development of businesses we will acquire
in the future. We will therefore continue to invest significant
resources in this area.
"We continue to review a number of acquisition opportunities but
remain patient and will only move forward where we are confident
that an opportunity will provide a good return for our
shareholders, in a reasonable timescale, and with an acceptable
risk."
*Consensus market expectations for the financial year ending 31
December 2021 are currently as follows:
-- Revenue GBP58.2m
-- Adjusted EBITDA GBP8.4m
-- Adjusted EPS 5.43p
-- Dividend 1.50p
Enquiries:
Franchise Brands plc + 44 (0) 1625 813231
Stephen Hemsley, Executive Chairman
Chris Dent, Chief Financial Officer
Julia Choudhury, Corporate Development Director
Allenby Capital Limited (Nominated Adviser
and Joint Broker) +44 (0) 20 3328 5656
Jeremy Porter / Liz Kirchner (Corporate
Finance)
Amrit Nahal (Sales & Corporate Broking)
Dowgate Capital Limited (Joint Broker) +44 (0) 20 3903 7715
James Serjeant / Colin Climie / Nicholas
Chambers
MHP Communications (Financial PR) +44 (0) 20 3128 8100
Katie Hunt +44 (0) 7884 494112
franchisebrands@mhpc.com
This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the
London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct
Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United
Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution
of this information may apply. For further information, please
contact rns@lseg.com or visit www.rns.com.
RNS may use your IP address to confirm compliance with the terms
and conditions, to analyse how you engage with the information
contained in this communication, and to share such analysis on an
anonymised basis with others as part of our commercial services.
For further information about how RNS and the London Stock Exchange
use the personal data you provide us, please see our Privacy
Policy.
END
TSTPPGUWUUPGGRA
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 26, 2021 02:00 ET (06:00 GMT)
Franchise Brands (LSE:FRAN)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2024 to Apr 2024
Franchise Brands (LSE:FRAN)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2023 to Apr 2024