25 January 2016
Safestyle UK plc
(“Safestyle” or the “Company”)
Year End Trading Update
Safestyle UK plc (AIM: SFE), the leading UK-focused retailer and manufacturer of PVCu windows and doors for the homeowner replacement market, is pleased to provide a trading update for the year ended 31 December 2015.
The Company has continued to trade well, with revenue for the year increasing 9.5% to approximately £148.9 million (2014: £136.0 million). In addition, profit before tax has shown good progress and is anticipated to be in line with consensus market expectations¹. The expected strong performance in the second half saw double digit growth in both sales and profit.
Against the backdrop of a weaker market in 2015, the successful rollout of our enhanced consumer finance offer helped to drive growth in the year, particularly in the second half. As expected, operating margins will show some decline in the second half as a result of the additional subsidy costs related to this offer. The Company has continued to increase market share from 8.48% as at 31 December 2014 to 9.46%2 as at 31 December 2015, according to FENSA data. That data shows an overall market contraction for 2015 of 6.6%.
Our growth is also reflected in the increase in frames manufactured during the year, up 4.4% to 279,453 (2014: 267,642 frames), whilst the number of installations increased 4.3% to 60,134 (2014: 57,682). The order book at the year-end was 1.2% up on prior year.
Cash flow has continued to be strong and we ended the year with cash of £16.5 million (31 December 2014: £8.5million).
The Company intends to announce its audited results for the year ended 31 December 2015 on 17 March 2016.
Steve Birmingham, CEO of Safestyle UK, commented: “I am pleased to report that trading over the year has been robust. We have continued to heavily outperform the market, thanks to the quality of our product range, the attractiveness of our finance offer and the effectiveness of our sales and marketing efforts. We have seen a strong start to 2016 and are confident of building on the progress made in 2015.”
¹.Consensus market expectations for FY2015 profit before tax is £17.6 million (2014: £16.4 million) after charging share based payments of £0.4 million (2014: £0.4 million)
2.Based on revised FENSA installations Safestyle’s amended market share for H1 was 9.38%
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