4th Jun 2009 16:39
4 June 2009
Hot Tuna (International) PLC ("Hot Tuna" or "the Company")
Trading Update
On the 27th April 2009, the board of Hot Tuna announced that it had raised £300,000 through a placing to assist with production financing of existing firm orders and to pay down creditors.
Since the placing, the funds raised have been used to complete outstanding orders for Europe, America, Australia and United Arab Emirates and fund the development of Hot Tuna's full Spring/Summer 2010 range.
UK and European deliveries focused around the adult men's and women's surfing apparel with the bulk of the orders going to Debenhams UK, Sportscheck in Germany plus a number of independent surf retailers. Hot Tuna products are currently retailing in 45 Debenhams stores in the UK and continue to outsell on a like for like basis several well known surf brands.
Debenhams in the United Arab Emirates continues to take deliveries of Hot Tuna's adult men's range.
In Australia Hot Tuna has just closed its Spring/Summer 2010 orders with national retailers Myer and David Jones in addition to several other specialty surf wear retailers. Spring/Summer Australian orders total A$494,000, which is in line with the Company's expectations, and are primarily only associated with the Company's children's wear range. On the back of successful sales in the United States market, Hot Tuna will launch womens swimwear into Australia next year as the company continues its planned roll out of the full product range in all regions.
The United States has historically been the most difficult market for Hot Tuna, with high operating overheads and little market penetration to date. In the past few weeks, the Company has significantly reduced its USA operating overheads and is focusing on its successful penetration of the women's swim wear market. This has been highlighted by re-orders from Delias, Diane's Swimwear and Victorias Secret. Hot Tuna intends to expand the USA business to cover the entire Hot Tuna catalogue over the course of the coming year.
Geoff O'Connell, Hot Tuna's Executive Director commented:
"The trading environment continues to be difficult, however, over the past few months we have been working hard to simplify the corporate structure and significantly reduce the operating costs, which has resulted in a much leaner and higher gross margin business. The Company will continue to expand on its profitable businesses and ranges in the various continents; women's swimwear in the USA, children's wear in Australia and adult men's and women's ranges in Europe and the UAE.
The continuing restructuring of the Group has now reduced global employee numbers and the Directors believe that its focus on better designs and fabrications, while still catering for its core branded surf-retailers, with its iconic, logo-driven offerings, is continuing to secure orders from key department stores.
Inevitably delays in securing financing for the Spring/Summer 2009 range has impacted turnover for the year to June 2009 which will be lower than we had originally forecast, with a corresponding impact on profits. However, the actions we have taken in the last few months to further reduce the costs of the business, as well as the high number of orders received for the Spring/Summer 2010 collection show us there is still a high demand for our unique product offering and we go forward with confidence."
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Enquiries: |
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Hot Tuna (International) PLC Kiran Morzaria / Geoff O'Connell |
Tel: 020 7016 5100 |
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Pelham PR Kate Catchpole |
Tel: 020 7337 1512 |
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Seymour Pierce Limited Mark Percy / Christopher Wren |
Tel: 020 7107 8000 |
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