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Poland and Czech Republic focused spirits maker Stock Spirits said its first-half underlying profit fell modestly after adverse currency movements hurt revenue.
Pre-tax profit for the three months through March almost doubled to €28.1 million, up from €14.7 million year-on-year, due to a writedown in the previous corresponding period.
Revenue fell 3.3% to €183.4 million, even as volumes rose 2.0% to 8.3 million nine-litre cases. Constant currency revenue edged up 0.3%.
Stock Spirits declared an interim dividend of 2.98c per share, up 7.6% year-on-year.
'This has been another resilient financial and operational performance against a hugely challenging backdrop,' chief executive Mirek Stachowicz said.
'We managed to largely counterbalance the widespread closure of the on-trade in all of our markets by growing our strong brands in the off-trade.'
'This was driven both by successful product innovations and by the trend for consumers to turn to familiar and trusted brands during times of uncertainty.'
'We are broadly on track with our plans for the year, notwithstanding the continuing disruption from the pandemic and the impact from the Polish small format tax.'
'Whilst there remains some uncertainty in the short-term outlook, we remain confident in the future prospects for Stock Spirits, as illustrated both by the investments that we are making in our brands and infrastructure, and by the continuation of our progressive dividend policy.'
At 9:36am: (LON:STCK) Stock Spirits Group share price was 0p at 233p