Coats announces 2015 full year results
- 25 Feb 2016
Coats, the world’s leading industrial thread manufacturer and a major player in the Americas textile crafts market, announces its unaudited results for the year ended 31 December 2015.
· Operating profit up 19% to $139 million on a like-for-like basis before exceptional items (13% reported)
· Group operating margin up 130bps to 9.4% (like-for-like); good growth in both Industrial and Crafts
· Adjusted EPS up 38% to 3.96c (like-for-like); reported EPS of (3.30)c primarily impacted by discontinued items related to disposal of EMEA Crafts
· Adjusted free cash flow of $74 million ($88 million in 2014)
· Strengthened business portfolio with disposal of loss-making EMEA Crafts business and first acquisition
· Repositioned Company as a UK headquartered, global industrial manufacturing business and made a number of Director changes
· Initiated settlement discussions with the Trustees of the Company’s three UK pension schemes to attempt a resolution of the ongoing pensions investigations
Paul Forman, Group Chief Executive, Coats, said: ‘Coats delivered a strong performance in 2015 with like-for-like operating profit growth of 19%. The core Apparel and Footwear business continued to gain market share; in Speciality we continued to grow through product innovation and geographic expansion, despite tough conditions in certain key markets; and in our Americas Crafts business we delivered an encouraging second half profit. Across the Group margins increased due to volume growth, lower input prices and procurement and productivity savings. This contributed to like-for-like adjusted EPS growth of 38%. However, discontinued losses related to the sale of our loss-making EMEA Crafts business, negatively impacted reported earnings.
‘We enter 2016 on a solid footing with improving returns and quality of earnings and a stronger business portfolio. Our cash flow generation will remain strong which will allow us to continue to reinvest in organic and inorganic growth opportunities. Whilst we face a backdrop of mixed economic conditions, we are cautiously optimistic of growing the business in 2016.’
A copy of the full announcement is available from www.coats.com/investors/fy15
ENDS
For more information contact:
UK
Richard Mountain, FTI Consulting
T: +44 (0)203 727 1374
New Zealand and Australia
Geoff Senescall, Senescall Akers
T: +64 9 309 5659
Notes to Editors
About Coats
Coats is the world’s leading industrial thread manufacturer and a major player in the Americas textile crafts market. At home in more than 60 countries, Coats employs 19,000 people across six continents. Revenues in 2015 were US$1.5bn.
Coats’ pioneering history and innovative culture ensure the company leads the way around the world: providing complementary and value added products and services to the apparel and footwear industries; applying innovative techniques to develop high technology Speciality threads and yarns in areas such as automotive and fibre optics; and extending the crafts offer into new markets and online.
Headquartered in the UK, Coats has a premium listing on the London Stock Exchange.
- Each year we make enough thread to go into 8 billion pair of jeans - that’s one for every person on the planet
- Every month Coats produces enough thread to stretch all the way to the sun
- More than 450 million pairs of shoes are made every year using Coats’ thread
- More than 100 million car airbags are made using Coats’ Speciality thread every year
- In 1879 Thomas Edison used Coats’ thread in his experiments to invent the light bulb
- We’re experts in colour, last year we dyed thread and yarn in more than 150,000 different colours for our customers
- Our Red Heart knitting and crochet yarn brand has been named ‘America’s Most Recommended’ by the Women’s Choice Award
- Our flame retardant Speciality threads can withstand temperatures as high as 1,000 degrees Celsius
- Coats is the second largest supplier of zips to global brands