reports
- Chris Wickham
Ultimate Products: FY26 sales upgraded - brand strategy improving
Ultimate Products has reported FY26 H1 results alongside upgraded FY26 sales guidance, with management now expecting group sales to be marginally ahead of expectations - supporting a stronger-than-expected H2 outcome. Our FY26 sales forecast is increased to £141m (from £138m); H1 overall sales were -6%, with £5m EBITDA and £9.7m net debt reiterated from the February update. Strategically, the mix is improving: owned brands (88% of revenue) grew +5% (branded incl. licensed +2%), led by Beldray ...
- Chris Wickham
Ultimate Products - Proprietary brands deliver 5% growth in first half
While UP’s sales fell 6% in the first half of FY2026, performance in its proprietary brands was strong, delivering a valuable 5% increase that was offset by a sharp decline in third party clearance sales. Furthermore, despite still challenging trading conditions for consumer durables, the company confirms it is on track to meet full year expectations. Proprietary brand sales were equivalent to 88% of sales in H126 compared with 79% a year earlier. In our view, today’s announcement is a strong v...
- Chris Wickham
Brand growth central to investment case
Ultimate Products' FY2025 results release confirmed key figures and brand growth messages from the company’s 13th August trading update. The group’s owned brands overall maintained a positive momentum and grew by 4.3%. Other key segmental trends detailed in today’s statement included strength in housewares as re-branded Beldray advanced by 11.1%, and a 12.0% gain in the largest part of the group’s international business, discounters. Year-end net debt was confirmed at £14.1m and adjusted EPS w...
- Chris Wickham
Promoting top talent to accelerate sales growth
Ultimate Products plc today announces five key promotions which will invigorate its senior management team. The announcement is consistent with the company’s stated desire to to improve its sales function, helping it fulfil its ambition to accelerate top line growth. In our view, an enhanced management structure, which incorporates a much-bolstered C-suite, should be a catalyst for further success. We maintain our fair value for UP’s shares at 165p. Arguments in favour of a much higher rating t...
- Hybridan Team
- Jon Levinson
Hybridan Small Cap Feast: 13/08/2025
Our daily digest of news from UK Small Caps Feast will take a well earned break for the weeks of 18th and 25th August. Wishing everyone a lovely summer holiday period. 13th August 2025 @HybridanLLP * A corporate client of Hybridan LLP. ** Potential means Intention to Float (ITF) or similar announcement has been made. ***Arranged by type of listing and date of announcement. ****Alphabetically arranged ...
- Chris Wickham
Premier brands retain growth momentum
Ultimate Products plc issued a FY2025 pre-close trading update which confirmed market expectations of a 3.4% sales decline in the period and £12.5m EBITDA. However, the company’s owned and licensed brands combined recorded a resilient 5.7% increase, while net debt at £14.1m and 1.1x EBITDA was close to the stated 1.0x target. The company is also reviewing its listing venue with a potential move to AIM. We retain our 165p fair value target, with emphasis on the embedded value of its two largest...
- Chris Wickham
Headwinds offset brand relaunch benefits, for now
Ultimate Products announced a trading update today which prompts us to reduce our sales and profit expectations for FY2025. Furthermore, caution about a recent fall in order books causes us to reduce sales numbers for FY2026. However, we note that management highlights a more intense focus on its sales function and both Salter and Beldray are in the relatively early stages of their re-brands. Despite progress in headline sales, which increased by 4% from a year earlier between February and May ...
- Chris Wickham
Europe well poised to enhance growth
In Ultimate Products plc’s FY2025 H1 results, organic European sales growth was offset by a setback in the UK. The coincidence of higher shipping costs with lower sales prompted a fall in profits. However, a combination of substantial growth headroom in Europe and the potential for both Salter and Beldray (around 60% of group sales) to benefit from their re-brands is reassuring for future growth. We make no changes to our expectations for sales in FY2025, which implies a return to growth in th...
- Chris Wickham
European growth offset by UK sluggishness
UP released a trading statement today, ahead of schedule. FY2025 H1 half sales decreased by 6% to £79.4m as lower UK sales offset a useful 12% advance in International (mainly European) business. The profit margin impact of these weaker than expected sales and high shipping costs prompt us to cut our full year FY2025 EBITDA forecasts from £21m to £15m. However, UP’s order book position is stronger, which augurs positively going into the second half of the financial year despite some end-period ...
- Chris Wickham
European growth prospects rise in importance
Ultimate Products released FY2024 results which confirmed the company’s August trading statement at the sales, EBITDA pre-tax profits and EPS levels. Detailed figures for sales by geographic region, brand, distribution channel and product category were published. Importantly, European sales advanced by 7%, moving to 34% of group sales from 30% in FY2023 as the company made significant advances with French and German discounters. This offset the negative impact of overstocking in the latter’s s...
- Chris Wickham
New Board appointments support growth potential
Strong relations with UK retailers and the potential to build on European expansion are important components of the value proposition and growth case for Ultimate Products plc. The owner of the Beldray and Salter brands today announced two important Board appointments that are consistent with those objectives. As a brand manager with clearly prioritised distribution channels, we retain our 200p Fair Value for UP’s shares. UP is to appoint two new Non-Executive Directors, both of which have per...
- Chris Wickham
Sales growth still expected to resume in FY2025
Ultimate Products – owner of the Beldray and Salter brands - released a trading statement today which was in line with market expectations at both the sales and EBITDA level. After a down year in FY2024, sales growth is expected to resume in FY2025. We make modest changes to our FY2025 forecasts in this report but retain our 200p Fair Value for the shares. As expected, sales revenue fell in FY2024, by 6% to £155.5m compared with our own £157.4m forecast. Sales performance was constrained by su...
- Chris Wickham
Beldray re-brand – Ultimate Products has “got this!”
Ultimate Products hosted a Capital Markets presentation at the Exclusively Housewares Exhibition in London on Tuesday this week, where the company showcased its re-brand for Beldray®, having engaged in a similar process for Salter at the same event in 2023. Regarding trading, despite some sales and profit disruption so far in FY2024, we continue to expect above trend organic growth in FY2025. We retain our 200p fair value for the shares. UP’s Brand Director Tracy Carroll presented key features ...
- Chris Wickham
Near term disruption, but growth case remains strong
Ultimate Products announces today that sales revenue fell by 7% in its FY2024 third quarter and is anticipated to remain in negative territory in Q4. As a result, the company believes that EBITDA will now be in the range of £17.5m to £18.5m compared with a current market consensus figure of £21.5m. Given the 17% cut in current year EBITDA expectations it seems prudent to adjust our fair value / share figure by a similar amount. So, we reduce it by 20% from 250p to 200p. However, current sales s...
- Chris Wickham
Balancing sales growth with cash flow generation - Interim Results
Stable profits (EBITDA) and a marked reduction in bank debt were key features of Ultimate Products’ (‘UP’) interim results, released today. The company also announced its intention to buy back up to 10% of its shares. FY2024 full year results are expected to match current market expectations. With revenue expansion likely to resume in H2 2024, and continue into FY2025, we argue that UP is more than capable of generating sales growth and free cash flow simultaneously. Underlying 6% sales growt...
- Chris Wickham
Cash generation drives shareholder value
Ultimate Products’ (UP) sales fell by 4% in the first six months of FY2024, with the likelihood of a broadly flat full year. But the company’s FY2024 profit expectations - and our own EBITDA forecasts - remain unchanged as improved gross margins should offset lower sales. UP’s first half sales setback was caused by 3 important temporary effects. First, the company lapped an unusually strong period a year earlier when demand for air fryers was at a peak. Second, supermarket overstocking has take...
- Chris Wickham
Ultimate quality and value for customers
Strong sales growth, sustained profit margins and abundant free cash flow were key features of UP’s FY2023 financial results. Moreover, the company combined significant advances with its brand portfolio with operational efficiency improvements, both in the UK and internationally. The results confirmed the Company’s 15th August trading update, as sales advanced 8% and the EBITDA and pretax profit measures were £20.2m (+8%) and £16.8m (+6%) respectively. Net bank debt closed the year at £14.8m c...
- Chris Wickham
Beautiful products for every European home
UPGS today announced the opening of a new showroom in Paris, which will facilitate the expansion of its leading homeware brands not only into France but continental Europe overall. Furthermore, as demonstrated with Petra in Germany, stronger sales and an elevated business profile expands the scope to make growth-oriented acquisitions in the region. We continue to place a fair value of 250p for UPGS’s shares, which in our view is reasonable given it implies 1.3x sales and 11x EV/EBITDA based on...
- Chris Wickham
Second half 15% sales growth beats expectations
UPGS comfortably beat full year FY2023 expectations for sales revenue in a trading update released today, as H2 sales accelerated sharply to show 15% growth compared with 2% in the first half of the year. Importantly, this growth was achieved despite no overall price inflation as the group sought to sell its branded homeware products at prices that would be affordable to consumers. In our view, the ability of a consumer goods company to generate sales volume growth in the relatively mature econo...
- Chris Wickham
Debt reduction confirms financial strength
UPGS announced a significantly better-than-expected improvement in its debt position today. Net FY23 year-end bank borrowings are expected be in the region of £15m compared with current market expectations of closer to £21m. The financial benefits of lower net debt in the current climate of rising interest rates are clear. UPGS’s cash generation capabilities not only underpin its generous dividend policy (50% of net profits) but also enhance strategic flexibility. The company is not only able t...
Unfortunately, this report is not available for the investor type or country you selected.
Report is subscription only.
Thank you, your report is ready.
Thank you, your report is ready.