REG - Mpac Group PLC - Full Year Trading Update

MPACAnnouncement

07/01/2021 07:01

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RNS Number : 8423K  Mpac Group PLC  07 January 2021

 
 
7 January 2021

AIM: MPAC

 

 

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of
Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014

 

Mpac Group plc

(''Mpac'', "Company" or "Group")

 

Full Year Trading Update

 

    Resilient FY20 trading performance, ahead of market expectations and
encouraging outlook for FY21

 

Mpac Group plc, a global leader in high-speed packaging and automation
solutions, provides a pre-close trading update (unaudited) for the year ended
31 December 2020.

 

The Board is pleased to announce that the Group expects to report underlying
profit before tax for the full year 2020 above market expectations, primarily
as a result of better than expected margins in Q4 driven by sector mix.
Trading continues to be resilient, as Mpac serves essential healthcare, food,
and beverage markets, deploying digital technology to mitigate travel
restrictions despite the continued headwinds from the pandemic.

 

On 9 September 2020, the Group reported the earnings accretive acquisition of
Switchback Group, Inc (''Switchback''), a USA based supplier of packaging
machinery and automation solutions to the food, beverage, and healthcare
markets. The integration of Switchback into the wider Group has been
successful with trading performance at Switchback ahead of management
expectations and the first commercial synergies with other businesses within
the Group have been secured.

 

Our order book going into 2021 of £55.5m remains strong (31 December 2019:
£55.4m) and, to date, no orders have been cancelled due to COVID-19. The
Group has a strong balance sheet, no bank debt, and has been cash generative
in 2020.

 

The Board constantly monitors the impact of the pandemic on Mpac. Our
customers remain active and we continue to win original equipment and service
orders with robust demand, particularly in the healthcare sector and in the
Americas region.  The Board has maintained strong cost control discipline to
secure margins, while focusing investment on a 'Fast Recovery' plan to ensure
that Mpac is agile and well positioned to take advantage of opportunities when
the market returns to higher levels of activity.  This plan includes building
the Mpac brand, virtual exhibitions for customers to demonstrate the range of
newly developed products, investment in senior commercial leadership and
offering customers digital solutions for remote machine acceptance and
servicing.

 

Our full year results, for the year ended 31 December 2020, are scheduled to
be announced in the week commencing 1 March 2021.

 

Tony Steels, Chief Executive, commented:

 

"Our employees have all responded tremendously during 2020, creating a COVID
secure environment and deploying digital technologies to ensure our customer
service levels remained excellent. Our pipeline of qualified opportunities and
our closing order book give confidence for 2021. The acquisition of Switchback
has further enhanced our presence in the Americas and the integration into the
wider Group has been successful.  I am confident that we will be able to
report a robust financial performance for 2020 and a positive outlook for 2021
which is testament to the fundamental strengths of the Group."

 

For further information, please contact:

 Mpac Group plc                                  Tel: +44(0)24 7642 1100

 Tony Steels, Chief Executive

 Will Wilkins, Group Finance Director
 Shore Capital (Nominated Adviser & Broker)      Tel: +44(0)20 7408 4050

 Advisory

 Patrick Castle

 Edward Mansfield

 Sarah Mather

 Broking

 Henry Willcocks

 Hudson Sandler                                  Tel: +44(0)20 7796 4133

 Nick Lyon

 Nick Moore

 

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