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UK-based world's largest maker of industrial sewing thread, supplying apparel and footwear manufacturers globally.
UK-based world's largest maker of industrial sewing thread, supplying apparel and footwear manufacturers globally.
Thread is a consumable used in every garment or shoe, so volume follows how many items its customers' factories make; brands often specify Coats thread, which steers manufacturers to it. Plants sit mostly in Asia close to garment factories, serving many countries.
In one line: The world's leading industrial thread maker.
Moat: narrow (scale, brand, distribution). World's largest thread maker with a global manufacturing/distribution footprint hard to replicate.
Headquarters: London, UK · Founded: 1755 · Employees: 18,889
Size Coats (COA.L) is a United Kingdom Consumer Discretionary company (Textiles) with a market value of $2.14B, the 154th largest of 363 United Kingdom companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at £83.25 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares gained 2.0%, against -7.5% for the median peer and +3.6% for the United Kingdom market (cap-weighted) — 8th highest of 21 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue grew 5.0% over the last twelve months (peer median +8.4%); the operating margin is 15.3% (peer median 8.4%).
Valuation It trades at 11.2× forward earnings against a peer median of 14.2× (6th cheapest of 15).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about 12% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +4%, so the hurdle is +7 pp: the price needs faster growth than the company has been delivering — of companies that just grew 25–50% a year, 93.8% slowed down over the next four years.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 1.6 points below its cost of capital (12.0% WACC).
Next results Next results expected around 11 Mar 2027 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | £1.19B | £1.11B | £1.12B | £1.12B | £1.25B |
| Revenue growth | — | -1% | 0% | -10% | — |
| Gross profit | £434M | £415M | £410M | £370M | £386M |
| EBITDA | £251M | £276M | £261M | £229M | £230M |
| Net income | £78.6M | £78.5M | £62.7M | £64.5M | £56.2M |
| Free cash flow | £142M | £147M | £55.6M | £100M | £78.7M |
| Capital expenditure | £23.2M | £24.4M | £20.1M | £0 | £0 |
| Total debt | n/a | £847M | £542M | £473M | £559M |
The default views of Competitor Analysis ▸ Charts, drawn from the same data. Open them in the cockpit to change the axes, pin companies and read every value.
| Company | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coats COA.L | $2.14B | +2% | +5% | 15% | 11.2× | 11.6% |
| Vardhman Textiles VTL.NS | $1.56B | -15% | +3% | 9% | 12.0× | n/a |
Peer set: Industry: the same industry and sector in any market, nearest in size. This is the same default set the interactive Competitor Analysis opens with.
| Measure | COA.L | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | +1.9% | -7.0% | 9th highest of 21 |
| 6-month return | +2.0% | -7.5% | 8th highest of 21 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -15.6% | -21.9% | 7th highest of 21 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | +5.0% | +8.4% | 10th lowest of 21 |
| Operating margin | 15.3% | 8.4% | 3rd highest of 21 |
| Forward P/E | 11.2× | 14.2× | 6th cheapest of 15 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | 11.6% | 1.0% | 5th most demanding of 18 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +4.1% | +4.4% | 9th lowest of 18 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | +7.4 pp | +2.9 pp | 6th most demanding of 18 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | -1.6 pp | +1.2 pp | 9th lowest of 21 |
| EV / EBITDA | 9.3× | 8.5× | 3rd most expensive of 7 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 2.8× | 1.3× | 3rd most indebted of 8 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coats COA.L | United Kingdom | $2.14B | +2% | +5% | 15% | 11.2× | 11.6% | +4.1% |
| HMT (Xiamen) New Technical Materials 603306.SS | China | $2.18B | -56% | -1% | 0% | 57.4× | 50.6% | +21.4% |
| OC Oerlikon OERL.SW | Switzerland | $1.99B | +41% | -21% | 8% | 15.8× | 1.0% | -7.0% |
| Albany International AIN | United States | $1.91B | +8% | +14% | 13% | 22.5× | 8.5% | +5.6% |
| North Chemical Industries 002246.SZ | China | $1.80B | -10% | +17% | 15% | 28.4× | 8.3% | +3.0% |
| Tangshan Sanyou Chemical Industries 600409.SS | China | $1.72B | -28% | +1% | 1% | 24.0× | 4.5% | +1.3% |
| Ruentex Industries 2915.TW | Taiwan | $1.72B | +23% | -25% | 10% | 6.9× | 48.3% | -2.4% |
| Bros Eastern 601339.SS | China | $1.72B | -16% | +11% | 11% | 11.8× | -8.3% | +5.2% |
| Nitto Boseki 3110.T | Japan | $2.85B | -58% | +12% | 20% | 19.3× | n/a | n/a |
| Luolai Lifestyle Technology 002293.SZ | China | $1.55B | +10% | +6% | 14% | 16.4× | -2.6% | -0.2% |
| Billion Industrial 2299.HK | Hong Kong | $1.48B | +136% | +13% | 6% | n/a | -8.7% | +15.6% |
| Xinxiang Chemical Fiber 000949.SZ | China | $1.46B | -27% | +19% | 8% | 12.5× | -3.3% | +12.2% |
| Sunvim 002083.SZ | China | $1.16B | -20% | +19% | 17% | 9.8× | -12.1% | +3.3% |
| Kurabo Industries 3106.T | Japan | $1.10B | +33% | -3% | 7% | n/a | 8.2% | +3.3% |
| Zhejiang Taihua New Material 603055.SS | China | $1.09B | -9% | +3% | 10% | 10.2× | -5.0% | +20.7% |
| Shanghai Haixin 600851.SS | China | $1.08B | +4% | -15% | 7% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Seiren 3569.T | Japan | $1.07B | -1% | +12% | 12% | 10.7× | -4.9% | +11.7% |
| Huafon Microfibre (Shanghai) 300180.SZ | China | $1.06B | -24% | -6% | -1% | n/a | 16.2% | +4.4% |
| Nanjing Chemical Fibre 600889.SS | China | $1.03B | -24% | +115% | 5% | n/a | 35.4% | -3.9% |
| Zhejiang Hangmin 600987.SS | China | $1.02B | -6% | -23% | 8% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Xinfengming 603225.SS | China | $4.54B | -2% | +22% | 4% | 9.7× | -3.9% | +14.1% |