Warpaint London records sales of £50 million in 2021

Warpaint London has announced sales of £50 million in its trading update for the year ending 31 December 2021, ahead of market expectations.

The company said that sales were above those recorded for the same period in 2019 (£49.3 million), the most recent financial year that experienced no impact from the COVID-19 pandemic. Sales in 2020 were £40.3 million.

Gross margins for the period were 33.8%, ahead of those achieved in 2020 (31.1%)  and 2019 (33.5%) despite increased costs in the supply chain, particularly in respect of freight, the company said.

Warpaint said its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) for this period were expected to be ahead of market expectations at approximately £7.7 million, and higher than in 2020 (£4.2 million) and 2019 (£7.0 million). Its adjusted profit before tax is expected to be approximately £6.6 million, ahead of profits recorded in 2020 (£2.3 million) and 2019 (£5.2 million).

The company said it had no debt after it had made significant stock purchases to satisfy anticipated Q1 2022 demand.

Warpaint London owns the W7 and Technic brands supplies own brand white label cosmetics produced for several major high street retailers, and sells cosmetics under its other brand names Man'stuff, Body Collection, Very Vegan, and Chit Chat.

Sam Bazini, Chief Executive Officer at Warpaint London, said: "I am pleased to report that we ended 2021 ahead of current market expectations. In 2021 we enjoyed particularly strong sales growth in the UK, significant growth internationally and further increases in online sales. It was pleasing that we were able to maintain our margins at pre-pandemic levels, despite some inflationary headwinds, particularly with freight costs.

"We expect to see a continuing improvement in performance in 2022 and have started the year strongly. In line with our stated strategy we have significant opportunities for further growth, both with our existing retailers, and those such as Boots where we are expecting to launch very shortly, together with others that we are in discussions with. I look forward to providing further updates at the time of the release of the Group's results in April."