Coats Group upbeat despite flat quarterly performance

How has quarterly trading been for apparel and footwear components supplier Coats Group? “Subdued”, coloured by “sustained macroeconomic and tariff uncertainty”.

But its mood remained upbeat in Friday’s trading update covering the four months from 1 July-31 October as the group “delivered a resilient performance, in line with our expectations”. It also maintained its full-year outlook, citing a trading performance “in line with market expectations”.

That “resilient performance” translated into revenues for the period falling 1% as Coats said it saw “encouraging growth in target organic adjacencies as well as further outperformance in core markets”. 

It added: “We have also successfully managed pricing pressures and flexed our cost base in the period. As a result operating profit was at a similar level to the same period last year, with margins consistent with H1 2025 and improved from prior year, in line with our group medium term margin target of 19%-21%”.

By division, Apparel delivered a “robust performance” in the period with revenue 2% below the prior year period “due to challenging end markets”. 

It noted a focus on “excellent service and operational agility” enabled the business to “outperform and win share with major brands alongside good growth in China domestic”. That helped the division maintain operating margins at around 20%.

In Footwear, revenue was 4% lower than the prior year period, “stabilising at similar run rates to Q2” due to “cautious customer ordering patterns given the ongoing market uncertainty”. It said operating profit remained in line with the same period last year.

Better news came from its Performance Materials division, which continued to deliver an improving performance. As expected, revenue here increased 4% on a year ago, “driven by accelerated growth in two target adjacencies”, safety fabrics and energy tapes. Operating margins here were also “significantly ahead of prior year, reflecting the benefit of operational improvements across the division”.

The group will release full-year 2025 results on 5 March 2026.