19th Mar 2020 12:11
(Alliance News) - Safestyle UK PLC on Friday said it had made "good progress" in 2019 as it reported a narrowed annual loss on lower overheads and a "healthy" forward order book.
The stock was trading 6.1% lower at 20.00 pence each at midday Thursday in London.
The PVCu replacement windows and doors manufacturer posted revenue of GBP126.2 million in 2019, up 8.4% from GBP116.4 million in 2018. Its pretax loss narrowed to GBP3.8 million from GBP16.3 million.
Basic earnings per share also improved to a loss of 4.0p from 16.1p loss in 2018.
No dividend was declared, the same as last year. Safestyle said it will revisit its dividend policy once more progress has been made on its turnaround plan.
The improved performance was attributed to a higher gross margin and reduced overheads. Gross margin stood at 25% from 23% in 2018.
At the end of the period, the order book was 24% higher than at the end of 2018. Net cash stood at GBP400,000, improved from GBP300,000
Looking ahead, Safestyle said while it has had a strong start to 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic has created "significant" uncertainty. This has caused the company to postpone GBP3 million in marketing investment in an effort to preserve cash.
"The board believes that our business is now much better equipped to deal with the probable short-term adverse impact because of the group's improved net cash position. Inevitably, a number of our strategic investments are now on hold. The board believes that it is prudent to defer all possible financial commitments possible until after the impact of Covid-19 is more fully understood, and we can plan with a higher degree of certainty," said Chair Alan Lovell.
By Ife Taiwo; [email protected]
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