Industrial flooring group James Halstead (LSE: JHD) has announced yet another record profit. It is the largest company on Aim and superficially the dullest, making vinyl flooring in Manchester for schools, hospitals and trains. But it’s far more interesting than it sounds. Halstead is one of the most consistently profitable companies on the market. Its size means it could happily slot into the FTSE 250. But for tax reasons, it has remained on Aim. It also has a global reach – its flooring covers everything from the Kremlin conference centre to Indian submarines and oil rigs in the Gulf.
The Halstead family owns 40% of the shares. The company is debt -free and its gross margins barely ever budge from 41%. Sales growth has been steady and returns astronomical – 18% compound growth every year for the last decade. And that is before dividends, which have risen every year for 40 years, hitting a fresh high in the latest set of results. It’s one to buy and hold.