Northamber's full year losses widen

28th Oct 2016 08:17

(ShareCast News) - Northamber's full year losses widened on higher administration costs as the AIM-listed IT distributor said it was "cautious" post Brexit. For the year ended 30 June, the loss before tax widened 39% to £1.2m due to an increase in administration costs from recruitment.Gross profit, however, increased 7% to £4.8m compared to last year, driven by a 7.8% rise in the gross margin "against a challenging industry background".Chairman David Phillips said: "Although the forecast post referendum gloom has not yet happened, and hopefully will not be too great if and when it does become reality, the short and medium term future is fraught with uncertainty."In view of the history of the last few years I am, to say the least, cautious. We are hopeful that the moves we have made in the profile and structure of the business will continue to develop the more profitable sides of the business and that we shall be in a position to move towards profitability sometime in the not too distant future, although I do not expect to reach that position within the next twelve months."The company moved away from lower margin businesses, which led turnover to fall by 5.5% to £61.8m during the period. The group said it now has three units: wholesale, which provides a wholesale function for IT products; solutions, a consultative approach to new technologies; and retail, which focuses on providing consumer goods to retailers.Northamber said it will focus heavily on the solutions unit as it increased the gross margin year-on-year, despite investment and recruitment costs.The retail unit experienced a decline in revenue, albeit with retained margins.The operating loss widened by 38% to £1.29m, due to recruitment and associated costs.Cash at the end of September was £5.4m, which was relatively flat from last year, while net assets per share declined to 67.9p per share from 72.7p, but above the average share price in the year.The company proposed a final dividend of 0.1p per share at a total cost of £28,159 to be paid on 18 January.Shares in Northamber fell 3.12% to 31p at 0905 BST.