Richard ReedCoats Group, one of the world’s leading industrial thread manufacturers, has announced a 2% increase in global sales for the quarter ending 31 October.
The strong performance was achieved thanks to good momentum in the core clothing and footwear business – roughly 70% of group sales – which rose 6%, up 1% on growth for the 12 months to October of 5%.
Sales for the year to October rose 4%, said the company – which had full year sales in 2016 of $1.5bn.
Mixed demand
Coats said the strong performance was achieved “despite continued mixed demand from clothing retailers and ongoing pricing pressures, as we maintained our customer-led approach to innovation and digital solutions”.
The performance materials division continued to grow, up 4% over the previous quarter, while growth in high-tech end-uses remained robust, with key areas such as engineering performance yarns continuing to deliver double-digit year-on-year growth.
However, the crafts division remained weak, showing a year-on-year decline of 12% for the quarter (10% decline for the year-to-date), mainly due to difficult market conditions in North America.