Beacon Lighting share price climbs 6% on strong trading update

The Beacon Lighting Group Ltd (ASX: BLX) share price surged more than 13% today before falling back to a more modest gain of 5.8% at the time of writing. The rise came following a positive trading update this morning in which the lighting retailer announced a strong sales and profit result for FY20.

Trading update

Based on the update, Beacon Lighting has reported statutory sales of $252 million representing growth of approximately 2.6%. 

Additionally, underlying sales of approximately $251 million when excluding Beacon Energy Solutions representing sales growth of approximately 8%.

Company stores sales growth was 7.2% with the biggest jump in sales coming from the company’s online channel with growth of 50.6%.

Statutory net profit after tax (NPAT) growth was approximately 38.5% to $22 million. However, underlying NPAT when including the Parkinson Distribution Centre sale, lease accounting standard AASB 16 and Beacon Energy Solutions was approximately $19 million. This represents profit growth of 16.7%. 

The above figures are subject to audit before the release of the accounts on 20 August 2020.

Furthermore, the strong trading update follows a business update released on 17 June 2020. In last month’s update, Beacon Lighting also revealed robust sales growth for H2 FY20. A significant contributor to the growth was the company’s online platform. 

CEO comments 

Beacon Lighting CEO, Glen Robinson, said:

“Despite the disruptive times of H2 FY2020 the group has been able to achieve outstanding results…Our ongoing commitment to innovate the lighting and ceiling fan categories, ensures our customer(s) receive the latest products. This together with exceptional service and great value has helped the business navigate through the global pandemic so far, however there still remains a lot of uncertainty for the future and the Australian economy”.

About Beacon Lighting

Beacon Lighting is a specialty retailer providing customers with lighting products encompassing the latest styles, trends and innovations. The company opened its first store in Melbourne in 1967 and has since grown to over 99 stores nationwide in Australia. 

In FY20, the group paid its shareholders a dividend of 4.6 cents which represents a yield of 4.22% on the current share price.

At the time of writing, the Beacon Lighting share price is trading at $1.09, 0.9% lower than this time last year. At the current price, its market capitalisation is $241.48 million.