Makeup seller Warpaint London hikes yearly outlook

Warpaint London had raised annual guidance, with the cosmetics group expecting to declare its best ever first-quarter sales.

The Technic and W7 brands owner said turnover from the start of January to 23 March had already surpassed £16million, against £13.2million for the first three months of last year. 

As a result, the Buckinghamshire-based business said its full-year outlook is now anticipated to exceed the board’s previous forecasts.

Outlook: Warpaint London said turnover from the start of January to 23 March had already surpassed £16million, against £13.2million for the first three months of last year

Warpaint’s unscheduled trading update on Friday comes about a month before the firm plans to release its annual results. 

The group now expects to post revenue of approximately £64million, which is £3million greater than previously predicted, and £14million more than it made in the preceding 12 months.

It also now predicts a forecast-beating adjusted pre-tax profit of around £10million, having made £6.9million in 2021.

Chief executive Sam Bazini said: ‘We are enjoying a strong trading performance across the group, with sales growth in many territories and online. We also continue to enjoy healthy margins.

‘We look forward to the remainder of 2023 with confidence and will update further at the time of the release of the Group’s results in April.’

Makeup and mascara purchases have recovered significantly over the past couple of years after sales slumped amid lockdown restrictions in 2020. 

AIM-listed Warpaint was also affected by the temporary closure of many retail shops that stock its products and online sales remaining a fraction of total trade.

In addition to a rebound in demand, the firm has been boosted by the launch of more product ranges both online and in prominent bricks-and-mortar retailers.

In the US, the world’s largest colour cosmetics market, W7 products have been rolled-out across outlets belonging to retailer CVS, Texas-based supermarket chain H-E-B and discount group Five Below.

Warpaint is also seeking to expand its e-commerce presence in the country through selling products on the Amazon FBA platform. In China, it has begun official W7 brand stores on shopping platforms TMall and Xiaohongshu. 

Boots and Tesco have started selling W7-branded goods in the UK, while homeware chain Wilkinsons is stocking products from the Technic and Body Collection labels.

Other British businesses that sell Warpaint’s skincare and makeup offerings include Matalan, Tesco, Asda and Superdrug.

Clive Shore and Darren Shirley, analysts at broker Shore Capital said: ‘We view Warpaint as a multi-year growth business, with a building customer base in existing markets and healthy international growth across the USA and Europe prospects, supported by both store-based and online partners.’

Warpaint London shares were 2.9 per cent up at 203.25p on late Friday afternoon and have climbed by approximately two-thirds in the past 12 months.

This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk