Nick Goodway: Portmeirion can piece itself together after a shattering time

Anyone who wants to call me the bull in the china shop, feel free.

In January 2013, I said it was time to buy shares in Stoke-on-Trent manufacturer Portmeirion when they stood at 440p. Two years later, in January 2015, I said they still looked good value at 895p.

I was sitting pretty as they scaled the heights of 1275p in May — and then came last week’s profit warning.

Having crashed to 840p on the alert, shares in the pottery group stand at 872p. There was a fair degree of post-Brexit panic in that sell-off and there are reasons still to be cheerful. By my calculations, the dividend yield (something that was committed to in the profit warning) is a handy 3.6%.

The sudden deterioration in sales in India seems to be firmly blamed on the current distributor there and can be fixed but South Korea’s downturn looks more long term.

Nevertheless the fact is that Portmeirion’s exports are now 10% cheaper for its overseas customers (70% of revenues). That should mean sales can go on growing and profitability will be restored.

It may be a bit of a long haul but an 872p share price still looks decent value for an excellent business.