Findel hails progress as profits surge

FINDEL, the home shopping and education supply company based in Tameside, Oldham and Lancashire, has reported a year of good progress as underlying profits surged 28% to £26.5m.

The group, which has recently sold off its loss-making door-to-door homewares business Kleeneze, but decided to keep its improving sports business Kitbag, said revenues from continuing operations in the 52 weeks to March 27 rose 2.8% to £468.2m.

Finance director Tim Kowalski told TheBusinessDesk: “We are pleased with our progress in what has been another year of change for Findel.  With revenues and profits up and debt down nearly 11% it’s a good overall performance led by Express Gifts, which continues to be the engine of the group.”

Kowalski said the group was running a process to find a new group chief executive. The previous CEO,  Roger Siddle left in March and the group has since been led by non-exec chairman David Sugden, who stepped back in to an executive role.

“Now we are keeping Kitbag the group is too complex not to have a chief executive,” Kowalski said, while refusing to comment on whether he would be applying for the top job.

During the year Findel amassed some £47m in exceptional items, which when included in the results pushed it to a bottom-line loss of £1.7m, compared with a  profit of £5.6m last year.

Of the £28.2m, £19.9m were non-cash impairment write-downs on the value of the education business.

Findel’s largest business, Express Gifts, which is based in Accrington, continued to be the star performer as sales rose 4.7% to £302m and operating profit 9% to £33.5m.

There was contrasting fortunes in the Hyde-based Findel Education division  where alongside trading uncertainty caused by “caution over school budgets and uncertainty created by numerous political initiatives”,  the business was losing customers and market share.

To address these issues, the management team has been bolstered and “deficiencies in marketing and our online offer are being addressed.”

In Kitbag, which is based at Chadderton near Oldham, sales rose  11.7 % to £74.4m and operating losses fell to £1.2m from £4.1m.

Kowalski said Kitbag had transformed itself from primarily being a retailer to an e-commerce business and has “strong growth potential” in the sector,

Looking ahead, chairman David Sugden, said: “We are confident that the new management team in place at Findel Education, together with a sharper market focus, will deliver an improvement in performance over the medium-term. Kitbag has delivered a substantial recovery and has started to capitalise on the significant growth opportunities open to the business.

“Overall, we expect to achieve further profit growth, which together with a further reduction in core debt, will deliver improved returns for shareholders.”

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