logo-loader

Cake Box’s 50% dividend hike puts cherry on top of record first year on AIM

Published: 04:00 24 Jun 2019 EDT

cake box
Cake Box joined AIM this time last year

Cake Box Holdings PLC (LON:CBOX) has hiked its final dividend by 50%, putting the cherry on top of a successful first year as a listed company.

The cake shop chain listed on London’s AIM market last summer, when it was valued at £45mln.

Since then, the company has shaken off the wider retail woes to grow sales and profits as it pushes ahead with plans to more than double its store estate.

READ: Cake Box guides for 30% jump in full-year revenue

Revenue climbed by a third in the year ended 31 March to a record £16.9mln (2018: £12.7mln), helped by the opening of 27 new shops, taking the total to 113. Longer-term, bosses want that figure to hit 250.

Pre-tax profits zipped 14% higher to £3.8mln (2018: £3.3mln), although that would have been higher but for £600,000 worth of IPO costs.

Given the strong performance, Cake Box has recommended a final dividend of 2.4p a share – 50% higher than the 1.6p it paid out last year. Including the interim dividend, shareholders will have received 3.6p this year.

New year off to solid start

“These results demonstrate the continuing appeal of the Cake Box brand, to both customers and franchises, combined with the financial strength of the group, particularly the strong cash generative nature of our business model,” said chief executive and co-founder Sukh Chamdal.

“In the past financial year, we have made good progress with our strategic priorities of new store growth, growing our existing stores, introducing new products lines and developing our digital marketing.

“We are pleased that our geographical spread has increased but there remain plenty of regions where we are confident there is still significant scope for expansion.”

Chamdal added that the new financial year has “started well”, with four new stores having already opened and two more due this week.

Shares rose 3.5% in early deals on Monday to 172.3p, valuing the company at £67mln.

BenevolentAI advances novel ulcerative colitis treatment through Phase 1a trial

BenevolentAI (OTC:BAIVF) chief scientific officer Dr Anne Phelan joins Proactive's Stephen Gunnion with positive safety data from the Phase 1a, first-in-human, clinical study of BEN-8744 in healthy volunteers. Phelan explained that BEN-8744 is a potent, selective PD10 inhibitor, uniquely...

2 hours, 12 minutes ago