PZ Cussons PLC on Tuesday said it expects revenue in the financial year that ended May 31 to be around £655 million and adjusted pretax profit to be at least £70 million.

The Manchester-based consumer good firm said this reflected like-for-like revenue growth of 6.7% in the final quarter, as well as a particularly strong performance in Africa.

For financial 2022, revenue was £592.8 million. Pretax profit was £65.3 million, while adjusted pretax profit was £66.6 million.

PZ Cussons is a manufacturer of personal care brands such as Imperial Leather, Carex and St Tropez. Shares were down 4.8% at 166.69 pence each on Tuesday morning in London, making it the worst performer in the FTSE 250.

In Africa, PZ Cussons welcomed the recent policy announced by the Central Bank of Nigeria to ‘liberalise’ the foreign exchange regime, which the firm said is ‘highly likely’ to remove some of the cash challenges faced by multi-national companies but has also resulted in a devaluation of the nation’s currency.

However, PZ Cussons said it expects no impact on its full-year results as a result of this devaluation but noted it will impact its future performance in financial 2024.

It said it is committed to ‘improving the performance of our Nigerian business further given the significant market opportunity and the strength of our brands’.

Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Myers said: ‘While the Naira devaluation will have a one-off impact to the group’s near-term reported financial performance, we believe the medium to long term prospects for our Nigerian business will be much improved by the economic reforms, currently being introduced by the new government, the likes of which have not been seen for decades.’

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