Victoria PLC on Wednesday reported a narrowed loss as impairment charges and distributional and administrative expenses fell, despite rising refinancing and reorganisation costs.
The Worcester, England-based designer, manufacturer and distributor of flooring products said pretax loss narrowed 12% to £147.9 million in the 26 weeks ended September 27 from £167.8 million in the 26 weeks ended September 28 a year ago.
This was despite revenue falling 7.0% to £529.4 million from £569.5 million.
Bolstering the bottom line, there was no exceptional impairment charge, compared to £120.0 million a year prior, while distribution and administrative expenses fell 33% to £209.3 million from £313.6 million.
Exceptional costs relating to the provision taken in respect of the Rugs reorganisation, and one-off costs relating to the refinancing of the group’s senior debt, hurt the group’s bottom line.
The company said it is ‘cautious’ about the near-term outlook, but said it delivered a ‘resilient performance characterised by strict cost discipline and significant margin expansion’.
‘This financial year has seen us working on dual tracks: addressing the group balance sheet and executing internal initiatives to improve earnings,’ said Executive Chair Geoff Wilding. ‘Despite the macro environment headwinds, all the internal initiatives we announced earlier this year are on schedule and additional savings have been identified.’
‘Consequently, in the short term, and even with historically low demand, margins have begun to recover. And in the medium term, as demand normalises, we are confident Victoria’s revenue will grow and with the higher operational leverage now inherent in the business due to our initiatives we anticipate earnings increasing sharply with a clear path to mid-to-high teen Ebitda margins.’
Shares in Victoria fell 2.8% to 36.47 pence on Wednesday afternoon in London.
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