Macfarlane ups divi as revenue rises 10% to £290m

Macfarlane Group, the Glasgow-based packaging, design and distribution firm, said its revenue from continuing operations grew 10% in 2022 to £290.4 million while profit before tax from continuing operations rose 7% to £19.9 million.

The firm is proposing a final dividend of 2.52p per share, which would take the total dividend for 2022 to 3.42p per share, up 7% on 2021.

Macfarlane shares rose about 4%.

Macfarlane said its Packaging Distribution business achieved revenue growth of 8% to £259.7 million “through the recovery of input prices and the benefits from the acquisitions of Carters Packaging in March 2021 and PackMann in May 2022 which offset reduced demand from e-commerce customers.”

Macfarlane said its Manufacturing Operations business delivered an “excellent” performance in 2022 with revenues growing by 23% to £30.8 million. It said the Macfarlane Design and Manufacture business “benefited from recovery in the aerospace sector and the strengthening of its partnership with Packaging Distribution.”

In its outlook, Macfarlane said: “We anticipate that 2023 will be another challenging year with uncertainty over the impact of the increase in the cost of living on customer demand, rising operating costs, particularly related to labour and energy, and increasing interest costs.

“Despite these challenges, with the effectiveness of our strategy, the resilience of our business model and the experience and commitment of our people, we expect Macfarlane Group to continue to deliver further growth in 2023.”