Smiths News PLC (LSE:SNWS) has reported that increased sales during last year’s World Cup helped it on its way to profitability in line with expectations over the 12 months to August.
Strong cover price rises played a part too, the newspaper and magazine wholesaler said, prompting adjusted operating profit of “at least” £38.3 million.
Revenue grew by 0.2% on last year’s £1.09 million meanwhile, the FTSE-listed group added in a trading update on Wednesday.
“In what has been a challenging period for the wider economy, our strategy [...] has been central to mitigating the impacts of inflation,” chief executive Jonathan Bunting said.
Owing to the strong results, Smiths News hinted toward a final dividend of 2.7p, bringing the full-year payout of 4.1p in line with last year’s.
An operational efficiency drive helped to mitigate the effects of high inflation, Smiths News added, while sales were pushed further by “one-off news events”.
The group will report full-year results on 8 November.