Turnaround on track for listed windows and doors business as revenues pass £64m
Safestyle UK, a retailer and manufacturer of PVCu replacement windows and doors, is aiming to claw back market share, cut costs and enhance margins after issuing a profit warning in May of this year.
The Bradford-based listed business has today released a trading update for the six months ending 30 June 2019, in advance of its half-year results announcement scheduled for 19 September 2019.
In the first half of the year, the Group said it had continued to rebuild its order book, so revenues for the period will be about £64.4m, 6.4% higher than during the first half of 2018, with May and June being about 15% higher than the same months in 2018.
In May the company’s share price dropped 13.4% after its bosses warned profits would not meet market expectations this year.
The business had then predicted that while it expected to return to profit this year, it would be less than initially expected.
Today, the firm said the first half of the year would, as expected, result in a “small loss”. However, it added that despite a challenging market where consumer demand appears soft, the Group remains on track to deliver a small profit for the full year, in line with current market expectations.
Its trading update notes: “FENSA installation statistics for the first half indicate the market has declined in volume by 8.2% versus H1 2018. Against this disappointing market performance, we have grown market share; by 16.5% versus H1 2018 and by 19.5% versus H2 2018.
“The Group continues to improve its margins and operational KPIs versus the prior year, and has delivered good progress during H1.
“During 2018, the cost base of the business had grown and a broad range of actions have now been taken to significantly recover our earlier, more competitive cost base.”
Mike Gallacher, CEO of Safestyle UK, said: “The first half of 2019 has seen significant progress delivered against Phase Two of our Turnaround Plan and we continue to focus on accelerating the company’s operational recovery, controlling costs and improving margins.
“This work has been enabled by enhanced financial transparency and performance metrics as a result of our 2018 digital project.
“Our focus in H2 will be to continue to establish the foundations for sustained growth in 2020 as we move into Phase Three of our Plan.”
