City Briefs: Angling Direct and OptiBiotix
Listed fishing tackle and equipment retailer Angling Direct has secured a short term £2.5m credit facility to help manage the disruption caused by the current pandemic.
In an update published today, the business says it has installed technology to ensure as many of its office staff as possible can work from home. All of its stores remain temporarily closed.
The firm adds: “Our webstores, however, continue to trade and our distribution centres remain open, with encouraging levels of trade in both the UK and international markets.
“The Board is therefore pleased to report that e-commerce sales remain robust for now, with strong levels of customer demand since 24 March 2020.
“Given the current unprecedented circumstances, the Board has moved swiftly to preserve capital and improve cash flow.
“This includes taking steps to reduce fixed costs and other expenditure and putting investment plans on hold.
“We have taken the difficult decision to use the reliefs extended, including furloughing employees, to reduce cash outflows and provide the Group with additional liquidity during this uncertain trading period.
“The company has secured a short term £2.5m credit facility from NatWest with an expiry date of September 2020, which will be used to help manage working capital as required during this period of disruption.
“As a result of enforced store closures, the Group now expects a material reduction in FY21 revenue and profitability.
“Further to the pre-close trading update released on 18 February 2020, the Board reiterates its previous guidance that it expects the Group to report turnover of £53.1m and a pre IFRS 16 EBITDA loss of no more than £0.5m for the year ended 31 January 2020.”
Andy Torrance, chief executive officer, said: “The retail environment has never before been in a position where it has had to deal with a crisis of this magnitude.
“Our focus remains on protecting our valued members of staff, ensuring appropriate and safe working conditions and, where possible, providing an uninterrupted service to our loyal and supportive customers.”
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York-based listed life sciences company OptiBiotix Health has secured a contract manufacturing agreement with Laboratoire PYC Inc. in France.
Laboratoire PYC develops, manufactures and packages private label food supplements, nutricosmetics and high protein & sport nutrition products.
It is part of the Solina Group, which has a turnover of approximately €450m.
The terms of the agreement grant Laboratoire PYC the exclusive rights to manufacture a new type of meal replacement shakes, designed to support the international expansion of OptiBiotix’s own label GoFigure® consumer weight management brand.
Dr Fred Narbel, managing director of OptiBiotix’s prebiotics division, said: “The agreement helps us lower the cost of trade in case of a hard Brexit, supports our existing and future European distributors, and builds contingency into the supply chain: a key requirement from large retail partners who do not want to be single-sourced.
“In addition, Laboratoire PYC has a large portfolio of product formulations which can be formulated with SlimBiome®.
“This enables us to increase the number of applications, extend our product range, and shorten the development of new GoFigure®, SnackSmart® and SnackWell® products without incurring significant development costs.”
