SMITHS NEWS PLC (SNWS) — Half Year Results

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Good afternoon, and welcome to the SMITHS NEWS PLC investor presentation. Throughout this recorded presentation, investors will be in listen only mode. Questions are encouraged and could be submitted at any time via the q and a tab situated on the right hand corner of your screen. Simply type in your questions and press end. The company may not be in a position to answer every question it receives during the meeting itself. However, the company can review all questions submitted today and publish responses where it's appropriate to do so. Before we begin, I'd like to submit the following poll. I'd now like to hand you over to John Bunting, CEO. Good afternoon, sir. Hello, everyone, and welcome to SMITHS NEWS interim results for the twenty six weeks ended the 02/28/2026. I'm John Bunting, SMITHS NEWS CEO, and joining me today is our Chief Financial Officer, Richard Clay. Richard joined the company in February of this year, and we're delighted to have him on board. So before we dive into the detail, let me quickly cover off the broader headlines. Once again, SMITHS NEWS delivered a positive performance with full year results expected to be in line with market expectations. Pleasingly, the business generated adjusted operating profit of 18,300,000 and adjusted profit after tax of £12,700,000 underpinning our interim dividend of 1.75p per share. Our newspaper and magazine activities continue to remain resilient, tracking broader print market trends and historic norms. In addition, we have now secured 96% of our newspaper and magazine revenues to 2029 or beyond, following the renewal of a long term contract with The Guardian Newspaper Group. The collectibles market has remained strong, driven by ongoing demand from Pokemon, including the thirtieth anniversary, and we're o...