1st Dec 2021 17:24
(Alliance News) - Venture Life Group PLC saw its share price fall on Wednesday after it reported poor trading, concerns around Covid-19 and a change in its chair.
Venture Life shares fell 27% to 35.00 pence on Wednesday in London.
Venture said that some of the themes that were referenced in the company's interim results have continued to plague its operations.
The Berkshire-based self-care product developer and manufacturer blamed, among other things, the ongoing impact of the pandemic for its current disappointing trading.
In September, the company said it saw revenue fall to GBP13.9 million in the first half of 2021 from GBP16.9 in the prior year. Pretax profit halved to GBP1.3 million from GBP2.7 million in the same period the previous year.
Venture Life additionally blamed rising input prices along with supply shortages for some components, and the well publicised issue of truck availability and pricing for uncertainty surrounding logistics.
Venture also said its unnamed Chinese partner had continued to disappoint against expected levels of sales and, as a result, it is exploring alternative opportunities to ensure that sales in China are maximised in 2022 and beyond.
The departure of its chair, Lynn Drummond, who had held the position for eight years, was also announced on Wednesday.
Despite this, the company maintains that turnover for the year will not be less than GBP32 million.
"Despite the difficult trading conditions through Covid, the business will grow revenues year on year from 2020 to 2021 and we expect this growth to continue in 2022 before any new acquisitions. The challenging trading conditions mean that we are now more cautious about the levels of growth that we expect in the immediate future, but we are confident that our growing revenues will deliver growing profitability. We know that our resilient business is well placed to deal with the challenges of this COVID environment and is well placed to perform strongly when more normalised trading conditions return," Chief Executive Jerry Randall said.
By Heather Rydings; [email protected]
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