Currency headwinds affecting education supplies firm
FINDEL, the listed home shopping and education supplies company, is battling lower retail margins as a result of both the weakness of Sterling affecting the price of its imported goods and competitive pricing.
Despite this, however, the company expects its pre-tax profit to be “broadly in line with current market expectations.”
Nevertheless, currency headwinds are expected to continue to affect the company well into the 2017 financial year.
The Hyde, Greater Manchester-based company issued a trading statement ahead of its close period for the weeks ending tomorrow (March 25) with full results expected in early June.
Executive chairman David Sugden said: “We are pleased to report an improvement in recent sales performances of our two businesses, trends which position the Group well in the coming year.
“With respect to the current year, we expect to report a profit before tax broadly in line with current market expectations.”
The recent sales performances of both businesses has improved, with Express Gifts seeing product sales growth of around 8.5% in the last nine weeks of the year compared to 2.2% for the year as a whole.
Findel Education saw sales in the same period decline by around 7.4% compared to a decline of 7.8% for the year as a whole, with active customer numbers stabilising after several years of decline and a strong performance from the higher margin classroom brands.
