8th Jun 2016 07:04
LONDON (Alliance News) - AO World PLC, the online seller of washing machines and other household appliances, on Wednesday named Geoff Cooper, who chairs Card Factory PLC, as the man to replace Richard Rose as chairman, and reported that losses widened in the financial year ended March 31.
Cooper, who will replace Rose after the chairman's farewell in July, is also the chairman of private company Bourne Leisure. He previously held executive positions at Travis Perkins PLC and Alliance UniChem PLC, which later became part of Alliance Boots PLC, and was non-executive chair at Dunelm Group PLC for 11 years before retiring in July 2015.
"Having conducted a thorough process, it was clear that Geoff was the best fit for the organisation. He has over 20 years' experience serving on the boards of UK public companies, and is enormously experienced in both the world of retail and high-growth companies," Brian McBride, the senior independent director who led the process to appoint Rose's successor, said in a statement.
Cooper, who was chief executive of Travis Perkins PLC from March 2005 until December 2013, said AO has the "strong foundations required for sustainable, long term success".
The appointment of the new chairman came as AO reported a pretax loss of GBP6.7 million in the year ended March 31, widening from GBP2.9 million a year earlier, even as revenue rose to GBP599.2 million from GBP476.7 million. After the cost of making those sales, gross profit rose to GBP105.9 million from GBP87.6 million, an increase of about 21%. Administrative expenses rose by about 30% to GBP116.5 million from GBP89.8 million.
Trading in the current financial year has started well, AO World said. In the UK, the company expects revenue for the current financial year of between GBP630 million and GBP650 million. Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation should be "slightly ahead" of current market expectations, AO said, in the range of GBP21 million and GBP25 million.
In Europe, meaning Germany and the Netherlands, AO said it will focus on "driving efficiencies" until its new regional distribution centre in Bergheim is fully operational. That's expected in Autumn 2016. AO expects European revenue to be in the range of EUR90 million and EUR110 million and adjusted Ebitda losses to be between EUR26 million and EUR30 million for the year.
UK adjusted Ebitda rose to GBP17.2 million from GBP16.5 million in the financial year ended March 31, and Europe adjusted Ebitda losses widened to GBP21.1 million from GBP8.0 million in the same period.
By Samuel Agini; [email protected]; @samuelagini
Copyright 2016 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
Card FactoryAo World