British retailer Portmeirion's shares surge on dividend plans, record revenue

By Priyanshi Mandhan

(Reuters) -British homeware retailer Portmeirion swung to a first-half profit and said it plans to resume dividend payouts this year, sending its shares up more than 10%.

The company, which also reported record revenue for the period on Tuesday, expects demand for ceramic dinnerware and other cutlery products to pick up through the holiday season, Chief Executive Mike Raybould said.

The company, however, flagged global supply chain woes as well as an ongoing labour shortage that have affected retailers around the world.

"We have more vacancies than we'd like," Raybould told Reuters in an interview. "We could do with more people in our factories right now."

Earlier in the day, online supermarket Ocado Retail also flagged higher labour costs, while online furniture retailer Made.com said global supply chain issues could last until next year and delay orders.

Portmeirion's online sales rose 15% in the six months to June, helping the company post a pretax profit of 1.5 million pounds compared with a loss of 2.7 million pounds a year earlier.

Revenue jumped 35% to a record of 43.1 million pounds.

($1 = 0.7223 pounds)

(Reporting by Priyanshi Mandhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)