LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Johnson Service reported a rise in full-year profit and revenue on Monday as it reaped the benefits of acquisitions, with a solid performance in both of its divisions.
In the year to the end of December 2018, adjusted pre-tax profit was up 7.1% to £42.5m on revenue of £321.1m, up 10.4% and the full-year dividend was bumped up 10.7% to 3.1p a share.

The company hailed a "strong" organic growth performance of 7.8% and contributions from the acquisition of South West Laundry in August 2018 as well as the full-year benefit of acquisitions completed in 2017.

Johnson Service said both divisions delivered higher levels of new business wins and maintained consistently high levels of customer satisfaction scores which in turn contributed to very high retention levels.

In the workwear division, operating profit was up 7.6% in the year to £22.7m, driven by revenue growth of 5.2% to £128.8m. In the HORECA business, which provides textiles such as linens to hotels and restaurants, adjusted operating profit rose by £1.2m to £28m, while total revenue was up 14.1% to £192.3m.

The group said its performance since the year end has been in line with management expectations.

Chief executive officer Peter Egan said: "Our strategy of driving the quality of growth organically by investing capital in our operations, coupled with selective acquisitions, has delivered another strong year of substantial growth with both divisions achieving higher levels of new business.

"We are continuing to focus on growing the business through targeted investment in our current sites, developing new capacity where market opportunities have been identified and expanding geographical coverage through acquisition. The combination of these three strands allow us the platform to continue to provide an excellent service to our customer base. We remain confident in the year ahead."

At 1040 GMT, the shares were up 1.1% to 131.40p.

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