LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - McBride said on Tuesday that full-year profits will be ahead of current market expectations as its aerosols business benefits from sales of new hand sanitiser products amid the coronavirus pandemic.

In an update for the year ending 30 June, the maker of own-label household products said adjusted pre-tax profit will be 15% ahead of market expectations of £18.6m, while net debt at the end of June is set to be lower than expected.

McBride put this down to a sold performance from its aerosols business, which is expected to deliver a profit in the final quarter.

The company said that since its update on 25 March, demand levels in its household business have moderated from the surge seen in many markets as countries went into lockdown. However, they remain above the run-rate levels seen before March.

"These higher demand levels are evident in most of our major markets and apply mostly to surface cleaning and dishwashing products, with more limited impact in laundry products," it said.

"Our teams have worked well to address the early challenges of staff shortages, material availability and distribution blockages and all factories are currently operating at more normal activity levels. As anticipated in our March update, we have seen lower input pricing in this period although some of this benefit has been tempered by one off Covid-19 related operating costs."

At 1300 BST, the shares were up 9% at 62.79p.

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