Aga cooks up £65m divi

Manufacturing News, Source : TheManufacturer.com
Published : 16 Mar 2007 8:45

The sale of 20,000 cast iron cookers underpinned another good year at the company that boasts it “equips the world's best kitchens”.

Aga Foodservice Group saw sales from continuing operations rise 15 per cent to £529 million (2005: £460m) producing pre-tax profits up 7.7 per cent to £46 million (2005: £42.7m).

The company said the 20,000 cookers sold under its three brands (Aga, Rangemaster and Marvel) was a base point on which to build substantially – 62 per cent of them are sold in the UK, 30 per cent in Ireland and the remainder primarily in Northern Europe and the East Coast of the USA.

Strong finances enabled a 50 pence dividend for shareholders to be paid at a cost of £65 million.

Chief executive William McGrath said: “We have strong brands and market positions. We have the ideas and resources to develop them further as well as increasing shareholder returns with a special dividend. We remain committed to driving innovation and structural change in the foodservice sector.”

Aga also succeeded in closing its staff pensions gap. An actuarialvaluation during the year showed a deficit of £4.8 million at 31 December 2005. At December 2006, the scheme was showing a surplus under IAS rules of £24.4 million (2005: deficit £18.2 million). Movements in investment bond yields and actual experience being better than model expectations accounted for the improvements, Aga said. A payment of £4 million to pay off the actuarial deficit will be made in 2007, it added.

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