Warpaint London sees record start to year after strong 2021 trading

By

Nigel TAYLOR

Published
Apr 26, 2022

After issuing a strong statement with its pre-final results early this month, Warpaint London’s full results for the year ended 31 December confirmed its buoyant business.

The specialist supplier of colour cosmetics and owner of the W7 and Technic brands talked of strong growth in sales, profitability and cash generation during the year “reflecting the focus on growing sales of the group's branded products”.
 
In 2021, group sales increased 24% to £50 million with UK revenue up 20% to £25.3 million and international revenue jumping 29% to £24.7 million.

Online sales continued to accelerate, with a159% n increase in group e-commerce sales in 2021 to account for 2.7% of total sales, up from 1.3% in 2020.
Gross profit margin for the year increased to 33.8% from 31.1% in the previous year with the gain coming despite supply side price inflation and “significant increases” in freight costs.
 
Core earnings (EBITDA) rose to of £7.6 million from £2.8 million in the previous 12 months. Adjusted profit from operations came in at £7 million from £2.5 million last time. And statutory profit from operations lifted to £3.8 million compared to a 2020 loss of £0.9 million. Reported pre-tax profit hit £3.7 million reversing a 2020 loss of £1.1 million.
 
All this was helped by further expansion in the number of Tesco stores and the stocking of additional W7 product lines, now sold in over 1,400 of its stores in the UK; the launch in Boots of 45 W7 products in an initial 80 stores in February; further product expansion in the US, including W7 products now being stocked in over 1,200 Five Below stores; six new accounts opened in the USA, including CVS, and further expansion of Chinese online sales with the launch of W7 brand digital stores.
 
And to show the momentum is being maintained, it said it had seen record trading the first quarter of 2022, with group sales 60% ahead of the same period in 2021, with sales increases seen across all the group brands.
 
No wonder chairman Clive Garston said he was “pleased”. He added: “In the UK the launch of our W7 products in Boots in February 2022 is a particular highlight and we anticipate adding further large store groups to our customer base in due course.
 
“The global cosmetics market is increasingly seeing customers transferring to more value-orientated brands, such as those produced by the group, and I believe we are very well placed with our high quality focused offering to capture further market share.”