Ramsdens Holdings (AIM:RFX) said the Board currently anticipates profit before tax for the year to be in a range of £30m to £33m following a record first half for the six months ended 31 March (HY25 comparator).
Revenue rose 62% to £83.7m, and gross profit climbed 48% to £40.1m in the six months to 31 March (HY25: £51.6m revenue; £27.1m gross profit). Profit before tax increased 173% to £16.7m, surpassing full-year FY25 profit of £16.2m, and basic earnings per share rose to 37.9p (HY25: 13.9p).
"We are funding growth in working capital and an accelerated new store opening programme while rewarding shareholders with an increased dividend," said Peter Kenyon, Chief Executive.
Ramsdens noted that it operated 172 stores at period end after two openings and one acquisition, and said the store rollout and near-term pipeline are accelerating.
Precious metals gross profit surged 130% to £17.5m, retail jewellery revenue grew 26% to £26.1m with jewellery gross profit up 31% to £10.4m, pawnbroking gross profit rose 18% to £7.3m and foreign exchange gross profit fell 9% to £4.6m while multi‑currency cards in issue doubled to c50,000 (HY25: 25,000).
Net assets were £70.2m and net cash reduced to £2.8m (FY25: £7.4m) after working capital investments including £2.5m in the loan book and £10.2m in inventory, with the loan book increasing from £13.8m at period end to £14.5m as at 31 May.
The Board approved a 33% rise in the interim ordinary dividend to 6.0p and an interim special dividend of 3.0p, taking the total interim dividend to 9.0p (HY25 total 5.0p).
