Havelock Europa : Preliminary Results to 31 December 2015

Posted on 14th April 2016

Please click here to view the full Preliminary Results to 31 December 2015

Financial Highlights

• Group revenue from continuing operations of £70.3m (2014: £79.2m)
• Group operating loss from continuing operations before exceptional items of £0.6m (2014: operating profit £0.4m)
• Pre-tax loss from continuing operations before exceptional items of £0.8m (2014: profit of £0.04m)
• Loss per share from continuing operations before exceptional items of 3.0p (2014: 0.1p)
• Net assets per share 31.6p (2014: 33.6p)
• Business effectively debt free at 31 December 2015 for the second year in succession
• Cash increased to £2m; offset by hire purchasing and leasing debt of £0.9m giving a net cash position of £1.1m (2014: net cash £0.2m)

Operational Highlights

• Head office move completed on time and to budget, expected benefits accruing
• David Ritchie appointed CEO 5 May 2015
• Strategic review of the business, supported by 'voice of the customer' exercise, led to a restructuring and right-sizing plan implemented final quarter 2015
• Operational gearing of the business significantly reduced; staff numbers year on year reduced by 20% to 425
• Non-core Teacherboards sold to Sundeala for £1.477m, generating a profit of £0.3m
• Business now organised into three clear divisions, Retail and Lifestyle (including International), Corporate Services and Public Sector
• International activity has increased from 10% to over 15% of Group turnover

Outlook

• Strategy of making the business more agile and able to respond to customer demand beginning to show results
• International retail activity continues to make good progress,; traditional retail activity continues to be challenging
• Have secured orders with a number of new major national customers for 2016 in line with with the strategy of diversifying the core of the business across and within sectors
• Order book for current year delivery of £25m secured, up 25% year on year (2014: £20m); the order book excludes work expected from existing framework contracts

David MacLellan, Havelock Chairman, said:

'2015 was a challenging year with a significant restructuring of the business led by David Ritchie, who was appointed CEO in early May. The scale of this work is reflected in the exceptional costs incurred during the year, with the full benefit of these management actions expected to accrue in 2016. Despite this restructuring and the cash impact it had, the business ended the year with a materially larger net cash balance than the previous year. I am pleased with the progress that David and his team have made and the increased opening order book gives encouragement for 2016'.

Enquiries

Havelock Europa www.havelockeuropa.com

David Ritchie, Chief Executive Tel. [phone]

Ciaran Kennedy, Finance Director

WH Ireland Group plc (Nomad) Tel. [phone]

Chris Fielding

Charlotte Street Partners (media enquiries) Tel. [phone]

David Gaffney

Patrick Galbraith