Shares suspended at fishing tackle retailer
Fishing tackle retailer Fishing Republic has suspended trading its shares on the Alternative Investment Market while it “seeks clarification” on its financial position.
The Rotherham headquartered business said it has been informed that certain major shareholders are no longer willing to provide further short-term financial assistance to the group.
As announced in the company’s interim results statement last month, group sales have been significantly affected by strong competitive pressures.
“This difficult trading environment has continued,” the company said today.
In May, its full year accounts revealed that it made pre-tax losses of £2.2m during 2017, despite growing revenues 57%.
Reporting on the full year to December 31 2017, the firm reported losses of £2.2m, a drop from pre-tax profits of £320,771 in 2016. The firm’s revenues grew 57% from £5.7m in 2016 to £9.1m in 2017.
This followed an announcement in November last year that it had suffered a significant deterioration in trading, which led to its CEO Steve Gross stepping down and being replaced by Chris Griffin as acting chief executive. Griffin has since left the business and a new COO – Stephen Kyriacou – was appointed.
