Year End Trading Update

Source: RNS
RNS Number : 3765K
Seraphine Group PLC
05 May 2022
 

The information contained within this announcement is deemed to constitute inside information as stipulated under retained EU law version of the Market Abuse Regulations (EU No. 596/2014) (the "UK MAR"), which is part of UK law by virtue of the European Union (withdrawal) Act 2018. The information is disclosed in accordance with the Company's obligations under Article 17 of the UK MAR. Upon the publication of this announcement, this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.

 

 

 

For immediate release                                                                                                                 5 May 2022

  

 

 

Seraphine Group plc

 

("Seraphine" or the "Group")

 

Year End Trading Update

 

Seraphine (LON:BUMP), an international digitally-led maternity and nursing wear brand, today announces a Trading Update for the year ended 3rd April 2022.

Since the trading update of 23rd February, market conditions have become significantly more challenging as a result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which began on 24th February, weakening consumer sentiment across Europe. This has been further impacted by the rising cost of living. Seraphine has not been immune to these sector-wide pressures.

Despite the headwinds which are challenging the retail sector, Seraphine has continued to demonstrate the strong fundamentals of its business model and its leading market position as provider of affordable luxury, innovative and sustainable maternity and nursing wear.

The business has delivered strong year on year revenue growth of 33% on a constant currency basis with 52% growth in North America, where the business sees further significant opportunities for value creation.

Seraphine has launched and achieved excellent sales growth in Canada, Switzerland and the Netherlands, demonstrating the wide appeal of its product, and its ability to roll out and scale up effectively in new markets.

As previously announced, there has been a number of margin and costs challenges identified, with notable inflation in distribution costs and customer acquisition marketing costs, with cost of acquisition currently running 25% higher YoY. Furthermore, following a reconciliation of both the FY21 and FY22 accounts, additional one-off non-cash corrective items, including previously unreconciled customer refunds and stock adjustments, have been identified.

As a result of these issues and the macro-economic headwinds, we now expect FY22 sales of circa £44.1m and Adjusted EBITDA (pre-IFRS16) of not less than £3m.

Given well reported sentiment issues affecting the industry, the Group believes it prudent to re-set market expectations for FY23 and now expects to deliver sales growth of 10-20% and an improvement in EBITDA (pre-IFRS16) margin to 8-9%.

 

Actions:

The actions which Seraphine is taking to strengthen the business and enhance shareholder value are as follows:

-      Our new CFO Lee Williams has instituted a full review of the Group's forecasting and financial management information capability. This has identified areas of improvement which are being progressed alongside personnel and process changes that will deliver improvement quickly.

-      The Company's Executive Committee has been strengthened with the appointment of a Trading Director and COO;

-      A strategic re-pricing has been implemented, protecting entry level product pricing while increasing more premium items which have traditionally delivered exceptional value; and

-      The Group continues to invest in innovative product design (with a healthy pipeline for FY23) and in-house creative marketing capability to drive customer demand.

 

Further detail and an update on these actions will be provided at the FY22 results.

 

David N Williams, CEO of Seraphine, said:

"Despite the evident challenges faced by the industry and consumers, the Group has seen strong revenue growth for the full year. This, combined with excellent progress in North America and expansion into a number of important new markets, reflects the underlying strength of the business.

"Whilst we are disappointed that a combination of internal and external factors has affected the outturn for the year and expect consumer sentiment to remain subdued in the short term, we are confident in the strong underlying fundamentals of the business and our ability to scale up and deliver growth in the medium term. We will also benefit from the steps we have taken to strengthen our executive and operational management capability across the team."

-Ends-

Enquiries

 

For further information, please contact:

 

Seraphine Group

via Buchanan

David N Williams, CEO

 

Lee Williams, CFO

 

 

 

Buchanan Communications

+44 (0)20 7466 5000 / Seraphine@buchanan.uk.com

Helen Tarbet

+44 (0)7872 604 453

Simon Compton

+44 (0)7979 497 324

Kim Looringh van Beeck

+44 (0)7477 967 446

 

About Seraphine

Seraphine is an international digitally-led maternity and nursing wear brand with a diverse range of innovative maternity and nursing products serving an under-competed global market.

 

Seraphine was founded in 2002 with the vision of creating desirable clothes which women would want to wear even if they were not pregnant, and this ethos remains true to this day. The Group has over 18 years' experience designing and developing maternity and nursing wear for women from first trimester to post-partum and nursing products.

 

The Group has achieved global brand recognition through its rapidly growing digital platform, which in the year to 4 April 2021, contributed to approximately 89% of revenue. The Group currently exports products to customers in over 120 countries globally, with the Group's largest markets being Europe, North America and the UK.

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