Swallowfield expects full-year revenue to miss current forecasts

27th Jun 2013 14:29

Full-year revenue is expected to be marginally below current market forecasts for 2013, with some of this revenue shortfall moving into the new fiscal year at household goods group Swallowfield.In a trading update for 52 weeks ended June 22nd, the group said that the industry continued to be affected by weak consumer demand particularly in UK and European markets. Additionally, Swallowfield was in the process of reducing its historical dependency on a few larger customers by securing new customers and launching new products, the exact timing of which was difficult to predict, it said. The group said that it had already taken strong action to "reduce costs, improve efficiencies and tightly control working capital" and said that these actions had resulted in the business returning to profitability in the second half year.However, the recovery in profitability would not be as strong as originally anticipated, the group disclosed. Working capital would be below previous estimates and the group anticipated that its net debt position at the end of the year would also be lower than previously advised. Going forward, Swallowfield presented a positive outlook for the second half. It said that the cost savings and efficiency improvements that had already been implemented had come through in line with expectations in the second half and would deliver a positive full-year impact in the next financial year. Swallowfield's share price was down 4.07% to 82.50p at 13:39 on Thursday.MF