Casdon doubles divi as profits surge

Toy maker Casdon rocketed on Tuesday morning as the firm doubled its interim dividend after profits surged in the first half.

Pre-tax profit jumped from £126,914 to £317,571 in the six months to October 31st, while revenue rose from £3.21m to £3.34m, helped by strong UK sales.

The firm also saw a doubling of shipments to online retailers and excellent sales to major supermarkets but warned that "these successes have come about at the expense of the independent high street retailers, who have recorded lower levels of sales."

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The dividend was raised to 1.5p per share, up from 0.75p the year before.

Casdon did report however that international sales were lower than last year "as the company strives to do business at more acceptable margins". Nevertheless, sales to the US are said to have grown significantly.

"Looking forward to the second half year, sales for November and December have been broadly in line with expectations, and reflect the pattern of the general retail trade according to the CBI's Distributive Trades Survey for the first two weeks of December, in which 41% reported sales rises and 32% falls. Nevertheless this is 9% better than might have been expected," according to Chairman Paul Cassidy.

Shares were 49.15% higher at 44p in mid-morning trade, compared with yesterday's closing rice of 29.5p.