10th Jun 2016 11:25
LONDON (Alliance News) - Havelock Europa PLC, the AIM-listed furniture and interiors company, on Friday said it is feeling the benefit after taking action in late 2015 to "restructure and right size" the business, and expects its first-half performance for 2016 to be in line with its expectation, cautioning, however, that the business still has a "high dependency" on second-half orders.
"We continue to work on simplifying the business and maximising the customer experience, both of which are key factors in helping us achieve the medium-term goal of diversifying our customer base and growing the business," Chairman David MacLellan said in a statement.
But the restructuring of the business has hit the development of the new Enterprise Resource Planning system, MacLellan said, which has taken longer than originally planned. The company implemented the first module of the system in May, and now expects to complete full implementation during the fourth quarter of 2016.
"Backed by the strong, largely public sector, order book the board expects first half performance for 2016 to remain in line with our expectations. However, the business continues to have a high dependency on second half orders and whilst the public sector is performing well, visibility within the retail and leisure sector is less clear," MacLellan said.
"This situation makes predictions for the second half of the year difficult but nevertheless the board currently believes, in the light of the actions taken and the strategy being pursued, that performance for the full year will also remain in line with our expectations," the chairman said.
Speaking at the company's annual meeting of shareholders, MacLellan said he has given notice of his intention to stand down as chairman during the year.
"Having been on the board of Havelock for six years and having been chairman for four of those years, during which time I have overseen a number of important developments including the appointment of a new CEO, a new FD and a refreshed senior management team, I feel that now is a good time for me to step down," MacLellan said.
"To this end, I have asked my colleagues under the direction of Richard Sweetman to commence the search for an external candidate to assume the role of chairman and I would hope that this can be concluded by the end of this year," he said.
Shares in Havelock were untraded on Friday.
By Samuel Agini; [email protected]; @samuelagini
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