Safestyle maintains guidance despite 'severe' cyber attack

8th Jun 2022 12:46

(Sharecast News) - Residential window and door manufacturer Safestyle said in an update on Wednesday that recent trading was in line with expectations, supported by its "largest television campaign since 2017", alongside updates to its branding and communications platform.

The AIM-traded firm, which was holding its annual general meeting, said it believed the campaign had helped to mitigate the impact of declining consumer confidence, and general economic uncertainty.

Chairman Alan Lovell said that, despite a cyber attack affecting the company "severely" during the first quarter, order intake remained robust, growing 16.3% to the end of April.

The company's order book at the end of April, at 26% higher than last year, would continue to support "strong" revenue levels through the summer, he added.

Safesyle said revenue for the first four months of the year was 6.7% ahead of last year, with March and April delivering growth of over 10%, reflecting the recovery from operational disruption caused by the cyber attack in January.

"As previously communicated, the cyber attack will impact first half financial performance primarily through disruption to customer service and a delay to a planned material price increase," Lovell said.

"The price increase has now been implemented and the business will continue to respond quickly to any future increase in costs.

"Concurrently, we are putting a commensurate focus on our internal productivity and overheads."

Looking ahead, the Safestyle board acknowledged current wider economic uncertainty, but said it remained of the view that the firm's "strong marketing plans" and value proposition offered resilience against a possible decline in demand.

"We will continue to anticipate and act early on costs and pricing while also focusing on controlling our overheads and driving productivity," Alan Lovell added.

Safestyle said its guidance for the full year remained unchanged, with the financial impact of the cyber attack confined to the first half.

"Despite the challenging context, our second half financial performance is forecast to follow the improving trajectory achieved in 2021," Lovell said.

At 1150 BST, shares in Safestyle UK were up 1.94% at 44.04p.

Reporting by Josh White at Sharecast.com.