Hotel Chocolat has posted higher half-year sales after it was boosted by new stores in the UK and internationally.

The upmarket retailer saw shares jump higher in early trading after it posted a 14% increase in revenue to £91.7 million for the 26 weeks to December 29.

The company also saw pre-tax profits increase, rising by 7% to £14.9 million for the period.

Hotel Chocolat, which was founded in 1993, opened nine new UK sites during the half-year taking its total portfolio in its home market to 125 sites.

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Angus Thirlwell, co-founder and chief executive of the business, said it was "very pleased" with its UK growth but is focused on being a "global brand" after expanding in the US and Japan.

The retailer opened two new stores in the US and three in Japan, and said it saw strong Valentine's Day sales in the two growing markets.

Hotel Chocolat said it was also boosted by significant growth in its direct-to-consumer business, as it saw membership of its VIP service increase by 120% to 1.1 million active members.

The company said innovation also helped to drive sales during the half-year, with customers also increasing sales of the firm's Velvetiser hot chocolate machine.

It said sales of the product were also boosted by a raft of new flavours including Tasmanian Mint, Habanero Chilli, and Maple & Pecan hot chocolates.

Mr Thirlwell said: "This was another strong period for Hotel Chocolat.

"Our strong growth came from a wider variety of sales channels than in previous years, which led to some initial challenges in our supply chain.

"We are now making good progress with investments and upgrades in our supply chain which will fully address these inefficiencies and increase our international and multi-channel supply capability, ensuring we continue to deliver profitable growth."

Shares in the company rose 8.1% to 416p in early trading.

Engineering group Meggitt has warned over a hit to sales growth this year from the grounding of Boeing's 737 Max planes and the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on the world economy.

The group said it expects group revenue growth to drop to between 2% to 4% in 2020.

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Full-year results showed revenue growth of 8% in 2019.

Shares fell 5% in early trading as the revenue caution overshadowed an 8% rise in underlying organic pre-tax profits to £370.3 million for 2019.

Meggitt said: "Sector-specific factors including the production halt of the 737 Max and supply chain disruption, as well as the wider macroeconomic impact of Covid-19 are expected to hold back margin progression in the short-term."

It cautioned that the impact of this is also expected to be felt "beyond 2020", with revenue growth expected in the low to mid-single digits in 2021.

Meggitt - which is headquartered at Bournemouth Airport - also announced that chairman Sir Nigel Rudd will step down by 2021, but remain in post until a successor is appointed.

Banknote printer De La Rue has unveiled plans for "extensive" cost cutting as part of an overhaul to turn around its fortunes.

Recently appointed chief executive Clive Vacher said the group will look to cut annual costs by around £35 million over three years against previous targets for £20 million.

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It also wants to "improve efficiencies" across its manufacturing bases and to boost capabilities at the sites to allow it to be more flexible to adapt to market conditions.

The firm is targeting a return to margin growth within its currency division in 2020-21, helped by the cost savings and investment in polymer notes.
It is now focusing on its two divisions - authentication and currency - having offloaded the international identity solutions business in October 2019.

De La Rue has suffered heavily from losing out to a French company for the contract to print British passports.

The group has warned over profits twice in recent months and its half-year results in November showed £12.1 million of losses against profits of £7.1 million a year earlier.

On Tuesday it confirmed the group is in line for adjusted operating profit of between £20 million and £25 million for the year to the end of March, with trading in both its currency and its authentication divisions "satisfactory" so far in the second half of the year.