Strong Revenue Growth At CMO Group

CMO Group PLC, the UK's largest online-only retailer of building materials, has published unaudited interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2021, advising of strong results which have met the expectations of the business.

Financial and Trading Highlights

• Revenue increased by 63% to £38.2m (H1 2020: £23.4m), reflecting strong organic growth and an £8.8m contribution from the acquisition of Total Tiles
• Like-for-like ("LFL") revenue growth of 27%
• Gross profit increased to £7.4m (H1 2020: £3.4m)
• Adjusted EBITDA* increased to £2.0m (H1 2020: £0.8m)
• Profit before tax increased to £0.5m (H1 2020: £0.7m loss) 

Operational Highlights

• Completion of successful IPO on AIM, raising over £27m for the Group
• Trading in the half year to 30 June 2021 has been delivered to plan with strong LFL results
• Continued focus on demand planning to mitigate challenging market conditions
• B2B CMO Trade APP on track to launch in early Q4 

Terms agreed for acquisition of JTM Plumbing Ltd 

• In line with its stated strategy, CMO agreed terms for the acquisition of JTM Plumbing Ltd, a pure play digital retailer of first fix plumbing and heating supplies
• Consideration of up to £5.7m for JTM Plumbing Ltd, which is subject to a net asset adjustment, includes an element of contingent consideration and will be settled from the Group's existing resources in cash
• This new category will be marketed under the plumbingsuperstore.co.uk domain name

Outlook

• CMO's market remains buoyant and the Group is managing industry headwinds well 
• Expectation to deliver double-digit sales growth in-line with FY expectations 

*Adjusted EBITDA is defined as earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation, exceptional and acquisition costs. 

Dean Murray, CEO of CMO Group PLC, said: 

"I would like to take this opportunity to extend a warm welcome to our new investors who came on board at IPO in July and to thank all of our colleagues for their continued hard work and commitment at this time. I am delighted to report a strong set of results meeting the expectations set at IPO. Our strategy is to take advantage of the channel shift online and low penetration of internet driven sales in an enormous and evolving marketplace, augmented by our dropship, asset light delivery model. 

"I am also pleased to report a positive contribution from Total Tiles and the team in their first six months of trading within the enlarged CMO Group. We will continue to grow our product range through selective strategic acquisition and are delighted to announce we have agreed terms for the acquisition of JTM Plumbing Ltd, a digital pure play business, which takes us into the different category of online plumbing and heating.

"The current challenges facing our industry are well documented however we are managing these well and remain confident of achieving continued double-digit sales growth in H2 to meet the Board's expectations."

Source : CMO Group

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