James Cropper (LON: CRPR), the Cumbria-based maker of advanced materials and paper and packaging, reported first-half Adjusted EBITDA of £7.8m, up 90.2% from £4.1m, and reinstated its dividend. Revenue rose 18.3% to £61.2m in the 26 weeks to the 26th of September.
Adjusted EBITDA is profit before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, excluding pension accounting and one-off items. Including those, statutory profit before tax was £5.0m against £2.7m a year earlier, while adjusted profit before tax was £5.8m against £2.1m. The results were released at 7am today, before the London open.
Paper & Packaging drove the swing. Its revenue rose 28.7% to £42.2m, and it made Adjusted EBITDA of £3.9m against a £0.7m loss a year earlier. The company credits an operational improvement programme begun last financial year, which cut direct and overhead costs.
The company says part of that growth came from seasonal factors and a one-off inventory build by a major customer, and it expects the unit to normalise in the second half. Advanced Materials, which makes nonwovens and coatings for aerospace, defence and clean energy, held revenue at £19.0m, with Adjusted EBITDA down to £5.1m from £5.5m.
Chief Executive Officer David Stirling said:
We are delighted to report an excellent set of interim results as we continue to see the benefit of disciplined execution of our strategic plan. Profit recovery in the Paper & Packaging business is running well ahead of plan.
David Stirling, James Cropper
The balance sheet improved too. Net debt (bank borrowings and leases, less cash) fell to £2.7m from £10.5m a year earlier and £8.1m at the 28th of March year-end. A new invoice discounting facility, borrowing secured against customer invoices, was put in place on the 1st of July, and gross debt was cut by £8.5m to £12.6m.
The board declared a 5.0p interim dividend, with none paid in the comparison period. It goes ex-dividend on the 3rd of December and is payable on the 11th of January 2027, and the board intends to adopt a progressive dividend policy.
Full-year Adjusted EBITDA guidance of £10.3m to £11.3m, first announced on the 20th of October, compares with £8.9m last year. The board expects Advanced Materials in the second half to resemble the first, and year-end net debt to sit above the half-year figure but below last year’s.