Aga is cooking despite the flat housing market

Posh cookers maker Aga smashed profit expectations today as demand for its own and Rangemaster stoves motored ahead despite a gloomy housing market.

"A healthy 6% rise in revenues in a year when most markets were flat in terms of mortgage approvals was a pretty good outcome," chief executive William McGrath said.

"We have put a lot into developing our cookers and their functionality, which will bring clear-cut progress in 2011 despite the clouds over consumer markets."

Aga shares jumped 10½p to a 12-month high of 132½p.

One of McGrath's ambitions for the year is to increase the group's share of the market over built-in ovens. In the UK around 100,000 range cookers are sold each year against some 250,000 built-in double ovens.

With recent developments like timers on Agas and induction ovens on Rangemasters, the group believes it can compete with any built-in brand.

Profits before tax soared from just £500,000 to £19.9 million on sales of £259 million. The dividend has been restored with a full-year payout of 1.7p a share. Aga has moved from having a massive pension fund deficit to a small surplus.

Analyst Harry Philips at Evolution Securities has a 200p price target for the shares.