Kitchenware brand ProCook has reported a near 15% drop in half-year revenue amid “challenging” trading conditions driven by the cost-of-living crisis.
The Gloucestershire firm, which listed on the London Stock Exchange last year, revealed it had slipped to a pre-tax loss tax of £3.5m from a £2.4m profit a year earlier, amid a squeeze on consumer spending and “prolonged hot summer weather”.
Bosses at the family-run retailer recently downgraded full-year profit forecasts from between £4m and £6m to “approximately break even”, citing “weaker” than anticipated sales in the run-up to Christmas and rising operating costs.
In a set of interim results for the 28 weeks ending October 16, ProCook posted revenues of £27.4m, down from £32m for the same period a year earlier.
The firm, which sells its products through its website and a portfolio of more than 50 UK stores, said the last two months - including the important Black Friday period and the early part of Christmas trading - had seen revenue improve “significantly” on the first half, but it remained “weaker” than anticipated, down 5.7% year on year.
Despite this, the board said the group had made “good strategic progress”, attracting 320,000 new customers and increasing its repeat purchase rate to 25%. It added that the number of active ProCook customers in the last 12 months had grown to more than one million.
Founder and chief executive Daniel O'Neill said: “This has been a difficult trading period, reflecting the wider consumer environment and also a very strong comparable period in our last financial year.
“However, ProCook has traded through tough conditions in the past and we remain confident in our specialist offer and ability to continue taking long-term decisions to build a stronger and more sustainable business.”
ProCook said it had opened a new store and relocated two more to larger sites opened during the period, and had progressed with the development of its new distribution centre and head office in Gloucester.
The business confirmed it has begun an action plan to reduce operating costs by £3m a year, including a reduction in board costs, efficiency savings to bring down logistics costs, and “a range of identified procurement and cost reduction initiatives”.
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