James Cropper – with Interims due next Monday, new CEO will show his ‘recovery strategy’ is working, shares 300p, brokers Target 500p

Mark Watson-Mitchell - 11.11.2025

Next Monday, 17^th November, James Cropper (LON:CRPR), the advanced materials and paper and packaging manufacturer, will be announcing its Interim Results for the six months to end-September.

On looking at what is happening within the 180-year-old group, I would suggest that the shares at 300p offer a very attractive upside over the next couple of years.

New CEO And Strategy

In February this year, the Kendal, Cumbria-based group appointed a new CEO – David Stirling (ex-Zotefoams) – to kick the business back into shape.

Ex-KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoppers Chartered Accountant, David held his previous position at Zotefoams for 24 years.

Under his leadership, the pioneer in cellular materials, developed a range of technical materials to serve a diverse global customer base and grew from a single UK site to multiple manufacturing operations across the UK, Europe, North America and Asia. 

The Business

James Cropper is globally recognised for its specialist capabilities in the design and manufacture of advanced materials and paper products.

Operating through two principal businesses - Advanced Materials and Paper & Packaging - and built upon 180 years of innovation, the Group serves a diverse range of customers with high-performance solutions tailored to specialised applications.

The Advanced Materials business develops cutting-edge nonwoven materials and electrochemical coatings for sectors including aerospace, clean energy, and defence.

The Paper & Packaging business offers premium creative papers and bespoke moulded fibre packaging together with leading recycled-fibre capabilities and products, supporting the transition to a circular economy.

Headquartered in Burneside (UK), with additional manufacturing sites in Crewe (UK), Launceston (UK), and Schenectady (USA), James Cropper leverages deep expertise in material science and longstanding partnerships with industry-leading businesses and brands to develop bespoke solutions that meet complex technical and aesthetic specifications.

Recent AGM Trading Update

In early September this year, the group issued an AGM Trading Update, noting that the 18-week period to 2^nd August had shown a performance slightly ahead of expectations in both divisions with good progress in the execution of the Board's updated strategy.

With disciplined cash management in line with its capital allocation policy, and the benefit of £1.2m net receipts from the sale of non-core assets, the group’s net debt of reduced from £12.9m since 29^th March to £10.3m as at 2^nd August 2025 the end of the Group's last financial year, and was £5.0m lower than the position at the same time last year.

The Board was confident in the performance of the Group for the full year ending in March 2026, with the Group targeting significant growth in Adjusted EBITDA against FY25.

The roll out of Cropper’s revised strategy was proceeding as planned with expectations of improved mid-term prospects of both the Advanced Materials and Paper & Packaging businesses.

Management Comment

Along with the Update, new CEO David Stirling stated that:

"I am pleased we are making progress on our three key objectives: sales growth in Advanced Materials, improving profitability in Paper & Packaging and disciplined cash management to embed leverage below 2x EBITDA.

The business is becoming more agile and streamlined to deliver our objectives, which will create long-term value for shareholders as we make progress against our recently introduced strategy."

The Equity

There are some 9.55m shares in issue.

The largest holder is Mark Cropper with 25.11%, while others include Liontrust Investment Partners with 14.81% and Unicorn Asset Management which holds a 3.71% stake in the equity.

Broker’s View

Analysts Rob Sanders and Akhil Patel, at Shore Capital Markets, have a Buy note out on the group, with a long-term growth rated Target Price of 500p a share.

For the current year to end-March 2026, the brokers are looking for revenues to ease slightly from £99.3m to £96.8m, but with a more than doubling of the group’s adjusted pre-tax profits to £2.8m (£1.3m), with earnings of 26.5p (28.9p) per share.

The 2027 year is estimated to show £102.1m sales, with a further ramp-up in profits to £4.1m, worth 38.6p per share in earnings.

Looking at the year to end-March 2028, the analysts have pencilled in £108.5m revenues, with a profit of £5.8m, generating a very healthy 54.0p in earnings per share.

In My View

Despite this group’s shares having risen 39% this year, in anticipation of the ‘recovery plan’ starting to work, I consider that the broker’s estimates point to a very useful share price upside.

At just 300p they trade on 11.3 times current year earnings, just 7.8 times prospective and on a mere 5.6 times group earnings two years out.

(Profile 11.11.25 @ 300p set a Target Price of 375p)