Shares of Runcorn-based workwear and linen rental company Johnson Service Group (JSG) rose 8% on Monday after it said its revenue for the year to December 31, 2019, increased 9.2% to £350.6 million and statutory profit before tax rose 15.1% to £38.1 million.

Full year dividend rises 12.9% to 3.5p “reflecting confidence in future prospects.”

Johnson Service Group CEO Peter Egan said: “We have continued to deliver strong organic growth complemented by the impact of our recent acquisitions.

“The combination of these has yielded another solid financial year with impressive growth in group revenues, operating profit and earnings per share.

“The group’s trading performance since the year end has been in line with management expectations. 

“We are looking forward to the opening of our new Leeds site which will bring further capacity on stream and are continuing to plan for investment in our other sites, to increase capacity even further.  

“We anticipate that the group will deliver organic growth across both divisions, whilst continuing to focus on customer satisfaction and investment to optimise operational efficiencies.

“This, alongside our proven track record in identifying earnings enhancing acquisitions, gives us confidence for the future success of the group.”