Warpaint London upbeat as 2021 sales and profits beat both of the last two years

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Feb 1, 2022

Warpaint London’s full-year update on Tuesday showed strong trading in 2021 and the company said its final results are expected to be ahead of market expectations.

The company owns the W7 and Technic brands, along others, and has contracts to supply major retailers like Tesco and Wilko with beauty products.

It said sales for last year exceeded those achieved in 2019 (£49.3 million) to reach £50 million. Sales were £40.3 million in 2020.

Gross margins for the year were ahead of those achieved in 2020 (which were 31.1%) and 2019 (33.5%) at approximately 33.8%, despite increased costs in the supply chain, particularly in respect of freight.

And it said adjusted EBITDA should be around £7.7 million, up from £7 million two years ago and £4.2 million in 2020. Adjusted profit before tax should be around £6.6 million, much better than 2019’s £5.2 million and 2020’s £2.3 million.

CEO Sam Basin said: “I am pleased to report that we ended 2021 ahead of current market expectations. We enjoyed particularly strong sales growth in the UK, significant growth internationally and further increases in online sales. It was pleasing that we were able to maintain our margins at pre-pandemic levels, despite some inflationary headwinds, particularly with freight costs.

“We expect to see a continuing improvement in performance in 2022 and have started the year strongly. In line with our stated strategy we have significant opportunities for further growth, both with our existing retailers, and those such as Boots where we are expecting to launch very shortly, together with others that we are in discussions with.”