REG - Safestyle UK PLC - Final Results
21/04/2022 07:00
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RNS Number : 8204I Safestyle UK PLC 21 April 2022
21 April 2022
Safestyle UK plc
("Safestyle" or the "Group")
Final Results for Financial Year 2021
Return to profitability alongside continued progress made against our
strategic priorities
Safestyle UK plc (AIM: SFE), the leading UK-focused retailer and manufacturer
of PVCu replacement windows and doors for the homeowner market, today
announces its final results for financial year 2021(1).
Commenting on the results, Mike Gallacher, CEO said:
"Despite the continued uncertainty caused by the pandemic as well as the
widely-documented supply chain and inflationary pressures, I am delighted we
have been able to deliver our best financial performance since 2017 and make
significant progress against our stated strategic objectives.
The Group's underlying profit before tax for the year represents a £16.4m
turnaround from 2018's underlying losses as we continued to improve margins
and deliver growth. The strong performance of the business in 2021 made the
cyber attack in January 2022 even more frustrating, however our previous
investments in upgrading IT systems proved invaluable in helping to mitigate
the worst of its impacts.
Looking ahead, the Group will continue to proactively manage cost-inflation,
however we expect consumer confidence to be impacted by the ongoing
cost-of-living crisis. Pleasingly, our record-level order book will allow us
to smooth the impact of any short term slowing of demand. Notwithstanding
the factors above, the Board and I remain positive on the outlook for 2022 as
the business emerges transformed after four very challenging years and
continues its return to our historically strong financial performance and
growth."
Financial and operational highlights
FY 2021 FY 2020 FY 2019 FY21 v FY20 % change FY21 v FY19 % change
Revenue (£m) 143.3 113.2 126.2 26.6% 13.5%
Gross profit (£m) 43.8 28.5 31.9 53.7% 37.2%
Gross margin %(2) 30.54% 25.14% 25.27% 540bps 527bps
Underlying profit / (loss) before taxation(3) (£m) 7.6 (4.8) (1.5) n/a n/a
Non-underlying items(4) (£m) (1.6) (1.4) (2.3) (17.9%) 28.7%
Profit / (Loss) before taxation (£m) 6.0 (6.2) (3.8) n/a n/a
EPS - Basic (pence) 3.5p (4.3p) (4.0p) n/a n/a
Net cash(5) (£m) 12.1 7.6 0.4 n/a n/a
For the purposes of this announcement, where appropriate we have included
comparisons of the Group's financial and operating performance for 2020 and
also 2019 with the latter, in many cases, a more meaningful comparative being
prior to the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
1) The financial statements are presented for the year ended on the closest
Sunday to the end of December. This date was 2 January 2022 for the current
reporting year and 3 January 2021 for the prior year. All references made
throughout these accounts for the financial year 2021 are for the period 4
January 2021 to 2 January 2022 and references to the financial year 2020 are
for the period 30 December 2019 to 3 January 2021.
2) Gross margin % is gross profit divided by revenue.
3) Underlying profit / (loss) before taxation is defined as reported profit /
(loss) before taxation before non-underlying items and is included as an
alternative performance measure in order to aid users in understanding the
ongoing performance of the Group.
4) Non-underlying items consist of non-recurring costs, share-based payments and
the Commercial Agreement amortisation.
5) Net cash is cash and cash equivalents less borrowings.
A reconciliation between the terms used in the above table and those in the
financial statements can be found in the Financial Review.
Financial headlines
· The Group's underlying profit before taxation of £7.6m
represents the first return to full year profitability since 2017 and a
£16.4m turnaround versus 2018.
· Revenue growth of 13.5% versus 2019 demonstrates the Group's
improving revenue trajectory.
· Early anticipation of cost inflation combined with the positive
impact of strategic initiatives delivered a 527bps improvement in gross margin
versus 2019.
· Net cash position strengthened to £12.1m versus £7.6m at the
end of 2020.
Operational headlines
· The COVID pandemic continued to impact operations in 2021 and our
priority remained the safety of our staff and customers throughout the period.
Managers and staff have shown huge flexibility and resilience as we have
maintained our commercial operations.
· Despite the sustained disruption, continued progress was made
against our core strategic priorities, including brand development, consumer
finance costs, revenue management, compliance and sustainability.
· A 14(th) installation depot was opened in Milton Keynes during
the year. This investment improves operational coverage, reduces travelling
time and will help drive the productivity of our fitting teams.
· Order book at the end of the year was 8.4% lower than 2020's
record levels, but remains healthy at over a third higher than any other year.
· The Group has achieved a 19% reduction in its CO(2) per frames
installed metric versus 2020 which represents early achievement of our 2024
target. Over 95% of the waste generated from the Group's operations, which
includes the removal of old product from customers' homes, was recycled.
· Customer service provision was extremely challenging due to the
broad range of disruption experienced, most notably labour availability.
Investment in resource resulted in the backlog being cleared by the end of the
year.
Post balance sheet event
· Having achieved our objectives set out in the Turnaround Plan and
reporting a strong financial performance in 2021, the business was hit by a
cyber attack, originating from Russia, at the end of January 2022.
· Business continuity actions, as well as IT investments in the
last two years, mitigated the impact, although it caused a level of
operational disruption that took some weeks to fully recover from.
· We have now recovered our systems and processes and the Group is
trading in line with original plans.
Outlook
· Despite strong progress being made by the Group in 2021 to
overcome well documented labour shortages, we anticipate resource shortages in
critical skilled labour pools will continue in the short to medium term.
· Cost pressures have escalated in the first quarter across raw
materials, fuel and labour. We will continue to address these issues through
pricing whilst also using our scale advantage to mitigate the impact.
· Demand has remained robust in the first quarter.
· We successfully launched our new TV campaign in February 2022
which has underpinned our continued order book growth in the first quarter.
· Over the full year, we aim to maintain a balance between order
intake and installations capacity to continue to optimise margins.
· Despite the short-term impact of the cyber attack on the
financial performance of the business, the Group has a strong balance sheet
and the Board therefore intends to continue to invest behind its strategic
initiatives.
· The Board expects performance for 2022 to be in line with current
expectations with annualised H2 financial performance representing further
growth on the good profit delivery of 2021.
A webinar for analysts and investors for the 2021 Full Year Results will be
held today at 10:00 am. If you would like to join, please contact FTI
Consulting at safestyle@fticonsulting.com in order to access the registration
details.
Enquiries:
Safestyle UK plc via FTI Consulting
Mike Gallacher, Chief Executive Officer
Rob Neale, Chief Financial Officer
Zeus (Nominated Adviser & Joint Broker) Tel: 0203 829 5000
Dan Bate / Dan Harris (Investment Banking)
Dominic King (Corporate Broking)
Liberum Capital Limited (Joint Broker) Tel: 0203 100 2100
Neil Patel / Jamie Richards
FTI Consulting (Financial PR) Tel: 0203 727 1000
Alex Beagley / Sam Macpherson / Amy Goldup
About Safestyle UK plc
The Group is the leading retailer and manufacturer of PVCu replacement windows
and doors to the UK homeowner market. For more information please visit
www.safestyleukplc.co.uk (http://www.safestyleukplc.co.uk) or
www.safestyle-windows.co.uk.
CEO's Statement
Faced with another year of turbulence, our core challenge through 2021 was to
deliver both a step change in our financial performance and to accelerate the
pace of our strategic transformation. I am delighted to report that against
these objectives in 2021, we delivered our best financial performance since
2017 and made significant progress across the breadth of our strategic agenda.
Once again, I have been hugely impressed by the agility and resilience of our
staff and self-employed agents. The overwhelming priority of maintaining a
safe working environment for our people and our customers posed day to day
challenges through the year. However, from our return to work from the first
lockdown in May 2020, we were able to sustain manufacturing and installations
operations continually, despite the impact of labour and supply interruptions.
Financial delivery despite turbulence
The Group's underlying profit before tax for the year represents a £16.4m
turnaround from 2018's underlying losses, a £22.2m improvement versus 2018's
reported loss before tax and a strong step up from 2019 as we continued to
improve margins and deliver growth. Our financial delivery in H2 was
impacted by an investment in recovering customer service levels, which were
disrupted by the operational challenges associated with increased COVID
isolations in early summer, the post pandemic supply chain shortages and
latterly, the Omicron surge at the end of the year. Despite this, the
financial progress we have made demonstrates the underlying potential and
resilience of the business model as we emerge from three years of turbulence.
The performance also completes the execution of the Group's Turnaround Plan.
Revenue growth of 26.6% vs 2020 and 13.5% versus 2019 showed a sustained
trajectory of performance and was underpinned by an early and proactive
response to emerging cost pressure and capacity constraints. The number of
frames installed improved by 12.1% year on year and gross margin increased to
30.5%, an improvement of 540bps vs 2020 and 527bps vs 2019.
Our strong order intake in 2020 built a record order book for the start of
2021 and allowed us to smooth the interruptions in sales caused by the third
national lockdown. Subsequently, the excellent order intake continued
through 2021 giving us a closing order book 8.4% lower than 2020's record
closing level, albeit more than 30% higher than any other year in the Group's
history.
The impact of operational disruption on our customers meant that it was
imperative that we invested in recovering our customer service levels in H2.
This required central resource and, inevitably, utilisation of our
installation capacity to complete orders that were partially delayed or
impacted by disruption. As a result, we ended the year having returned to
normal levels of service.
The priority given to improving our customer experience is in line with our
strategic work to focus on the consumer experience, building our brand through
word of mouth recommendation in addition to TV investment. However, the
inefficiency associated with this recovery underlined the need to accelerate
the modernisation of our core business IT systems which is underway.
Our net cash position improved during the year to £12.1m at year end, an
increase of £4.5m from 2020. This represents a return to a healthy and
stable financial position and is after the Group repaid £2.4m of VAT that was
deferred from 2020 as part of our COVID support measures.
Accelerated strategic delivery
The work done during 2020 enabled us to accelerate the pace of change within
the business during 2021.
Levelling Up Depots and Sales Branches: The range of performance across our
sites represents a significant opportunity and is being unlocked through
embedding Standard Operating Procedures ('SOPs'), effective IT systems and
through establishing training and performance management processes. During
2020, SOPs were developed for both Operations and Sales and H2 saw us
establish, recruit and train almost 100 new PAYE sales branch management
roles.
Delivering Profitable Growth: Our brand development project completed work on
a modernised brand logo and refreshed brand communications campaign, fronted
by David Seaman MBE, the former England goalkeeper. This work was
underpinned by new research and consumer insight which informs much of our
business strategy during 2022. We continued to advance our digital marketing
capability, which now encompasses the use of artificial intelligence, to drive
volume and mitigate cost pressure in the digital channel. We continued to
move pricing promptly in response to emerging cost pressure and capacity
constraints and this delivered revenue growth and margin improvement.
Transforming the Customer Experience: Our metrics show that the vast majority
of our customers have a seamless experience from sales through to
installations, but we know we have an opportunity to improve this further.
During 2021 we implemented Net Promoter Score ('NPS') across our operations
divisions, combined with financial incentives for quality performance across
our depot network. While disrupted by supply and labour issues in H2, the
underlying progress is clear and these actions support our intent of placing
customer experience at the heart of the business.
Embedding Sustainability and Compliance: I have been delighted that we were
able to exceed our original target of 10% reduction in our CO(2) per frame by
2024 well ahead of time, achieving a 19% reduction this year. We now see an
opportunity for a further 6% improvement before 2025. This will be delivered
by continued incremental improvement ahead of the introduction, when
technology and infrastructure enables it, of a fully-electrified vehicle
fleet. We will continue to target the elimination of the remaining 5% of
consumer waste going to landfill in conjunction with both existing and new
partners. In addition, we will conduct a Scope 3 audit of our ten largest
suppliers in 2022 to ensure that progress on reducing emissions is also being
made downstream.
The year also saw us become the first major sales force in the industry to
join the Association of Professional Sales and be awarded their ethical sales
business accreditation.
Our progress in financial delivery and against our strategic priorities has
been supported by sustained investment in our people and in modernising our
systems. The latter has encompassed the replacement of legacy systems,
system resilience and most importantly, the preparation for implementing a new
CRM system in 2022.
We are particularly proud of the launch of the Safestyle Academy, the largest
professional development programme for installers in the UK. This is a major
long term investment and illustrates our commitment to raising professional
standards across the industry.
Sustaining the strategic transformation in 2022
Despite the progress made in 2021, we have more work ahead to complete and
embed the strategic changes that are now underway in the business.
Our key strategies will remain;
· Delivering our Financial Roadmap
· Levelling Up our Depots and Branches
· Driving Profitable Growth
· Transforming our Customer Experience
· Embedding Sustainability and Compliance
All supported by our two enabling strategies; investing in the development of
our people and modernising our systems and processes.
Current trading and outlook
Our first quarter has seen robust order intake supported by the successful
launch of our new TV Advertising campaign, our largest investment in our brand
since 2017. This saw the fruition of our 2021 brand development work. Our
communication focuses on value with a 'Safestyle Saves' message, fronted by
David Seaman. Initial results have been positive with the campaign still
underway.
It was immensely frustrating that as we emerged from four years of turbulence
and following strong financial performance in 2021, the business was hit on 25
January 2022 by a sophisticated cyber attack, which originated from Russia.
Safestyle was one of a number of businesses impacted by what we understand to
be a significant increase in cyber attacks on mid-size UK businesses. The
immediate response from our staff was prompt and impressive and we were able
to sustain our core operations, sales, surveying, manufacturing and
installations throughout the business recovery period, which is now
complete.
It is clear that our programme of recent IT investments contributed to
significantly mitigating the impact of the attack.
Despite our ability to sustain our core operations, the attack did cause a
level of disruption as we temporarily reverted to our business continuity
processes. The business now has all core systems back up and running and
concurrently has further enhanced our cyber security measures. Based on the
increased and likely persistent threat to UK businesses, we plan to accelerate
our existing IT modernisation plan further during 2022 and 2023.
Looking forward, we expect the impact of inflation and consumer confidence to
be reflected in consumer demand for the year ahead, albeit our order book,
which is now at record levels, will allow us to smooth the impact of any mid
term slowing of demand. Furthermore, our historic performance as a value
brand has demonstrated resilience through periods of reduced consumer
demand. Meanwhile, raw material, labour and material cost inflation are at
record levels and we intend to mitigate these impacts through pricing whilst
maintaining focus on both costs and productivity to limit the impact as far as
possible.
The business will continue to assess opportunities to accelerate growth in
line with our strategy, which encompasses acquisitions, new business
development and organic core business growth. This will be the prime call on
our cash, but we do intend, if our net cash position grows from its current
levels after these growth opportunities, to return to the dividend list in the
relatively near future. The timing of this will depend on the scale and
timing of our investments.
Our strategic intent remains consistent into 2022; to build long term value by
consolidating our position as the clear UK market leader. Despite the
factors above, the Board remains positive on the outlook for 2022 as the
business emerges transformed after three very challenging years and continues
to deliver a return to our historical strong financial performance and growth.
Mike Gallacher
Chief Executive Officer
20 April 2022
Financial Review
2021 2020 2021 vs 2020 % change 2021 vs 2019 % change
Financials
Underlying Non-underlying items(1) Total Underlying Non-underlying items(1) Total
£000 £000 £000 £000 £000 £000
Revenue 143,251 - 143,251 113,191 - 113,191 26.6% 13.5%
Cost of sales (99,496) - (99,496) (84,732) - (84,732) (17.4%) (5.5%)
Gross Profit 43,755 - 43,755 28,459 - 28,459 53.7% 37.2%
Other operating expenses(2) (34,519) (1,650) (36,169) (32,057) (1,399) (33,456) (7.7%) (7.8%)
Operating profit / (loss) 9,236 (1,650) 7,586 (3,598) (1,399) (4,997) n/a n/a
Finance Income - - - 1 - 1 n/a n/a
Finance Costs (1,623) - (1,623) (1,161) - (1,161) (39.8%) (15.8%)
Profit / (loss) before taxation(3) 7,613 (1,650) 5,963 (4,758) (1,399) (6,157) n/a n/a
Taxation (1,188) 1,103 n/a n/a
Profit / (loss) for the year 4,775 (5,054) n/a n/a
Basic EPS (pence per share) 3.5p (4.3p)
Diluted EPS (pence per share) 3.4p (4.3p)
Cash and cash equivalents 16,351 11,705
Borrowings (4,231) (4,127)
Net cash(4) 12,120 7,578
For the purposes of this announcement, where appropriate we have included
comparisons of the Group's financial and operating performance for 2020 and
also 2019 with the latter, in many cases, a more meaningful comparative being
prior to the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
KPIs 2021 2020 2021 vs 2020 change 2019 2021 vs 2019 change
Revenue £000 143,251 113,191 26.6% 126,237 13.5%
Gross margin %(5) 30.54% 25.14% 540bps 25.27% 527bps
Average Order Value (£ inc VAT) 4,032 3,474 16.1% 3,337 20.8%
Average Frame Price (£ ex VAT) 791 704 12.4% 678 16.7%
Frames installed (units) 183,374 163,617 12.1% 190,252 (3.6%)
Orders installed 43,167 39,789 8.5% 46,412 (7.0%)
Frames per order 4.25 4.11 3.4% 4.10 3.7%
2021 represents a return to full year profitability and further improvement to
the Group's financial performance trajectory which builds on the performance
in H2 2020. The Group moved swiftly to mitigate inflationary pressures and
gross margins have improved materially versus 2020 and 2019 as a result of a
number of margin-enhancing initiatives. 2021 also included further
investment in customer service resource and installation capacity as the Group
focused on recovery from the operational turbulence caused by the pandemic in
2020 and early 2021.
The Group made an underlying profit before taxation(3) of £7.6m for the year,
representing a strong recovery from the losses sustained in 2020. Net
cash(4) also strengthened to £12.1m at the end of the period, an increase of
£4.5m versus the prior year.
This Financial Review now provides further detail behind the changes in the
financial measures and KPIs of the business and will draw attention to how the
performance compares to both 2020 and also 2019 which is, in many cases, a
more meaningful comparative being prior to the disruption of the COVID-19
pandemic in 2020.
Financial and KPI headlines
· Revenue increased to £143.3m, growth of 26.6% compared to the
COVID-impacted 2020 and by 13.5% compared to 2019.
· Frames installed increased by 12.1% versus 2020 to 183,374 with the
prior year levels adversely impacted by the first half COVID disruption in
2020. Compared to 2019, frames installed reduced by 3.6% with the Group
optimising the balance between utilisation of its available installation
capacity for new customers alongside customer service recovery work.
· The Group has continued to improve average frame price, achieving a
12.4% increase over 2020 which is attributable to necessary price increases to
negate input cost inflation, favourable market conditions and discount
management. Higher-priced composite guard doors were relatively consistent
year on year at 7.3% of frames installed compared to 7.6% for 2020.
· Alongside the average price improvement, the majority of the
benefit arising from changes made to the Group's consumer finance portfolio in
the latter part of 2020 is now being realised. This has resulted in a
reduction in finance subsidy costs of £1.9m versus 2020 and £3.3m versus
2019.
· Gross profit increased by 53.7% and 37.2% over 2020 and 2019
respectively to £43.8m. Gross margin percentage(5) increased by 540bps
versus 2020 and by 527bps versus 2019 to 30.5%. This is predominantly
attributable to the improvement in average frame price, the reduction in
finance subsidy costs and finally, lower lead generation costs which are a
result of both internally-driven efficiencies and favourable market
conditions. The latter effect was most noticeable in the first half of the
year. Lead generation costs in the second half of the year normalised back
towards pre-pandemic levels of 2019.
· Underlying other operating expenses(2) for the period increased by
£2.5m (7.7%) compared to 2020. 2020 was materially reduced as a result of a
£1.1m furlough reclaim benefit as part of the Government's Coronavirus Job
Retention Scheme ('CJRS') and reduced levels of operating activity during the
lockdown period in the first half of the year. Excluding this impact, the
year on year increase represents ongoing investment in the Group's
installation capacity, customer service resource and IT.
· Finance costs increased versus 2020 despite reduced borrowing costs
due to lower utilisation (and thus lower fees) in relation to the £3m
revolving credit facility. This effect was offset by higher finance costs on
lease liabilities following the renewal of the Group's vehicle fleet and the
consequential higher interest expense charged at the beginning of the lease
under IFRS 16.
· Underlying profit / (loss) before taxation was a profit of £7.6m
for the period (2020: loss of £(4.8)m) with the recovery in volume and
improvements in gross margin described above driving the £12.4m improvement.
· Non-underlying items(1) were £1.7m for the period (2020: £1.4m)
and therefore reported profit / (loss) before taxation was £6.0m versus a
loss of £(6.2)m in 2020.
· Net cash improved to £12.1m compared to £7.6m at the end of the
prior year. The improved cash position is directly related to the
profitability of the year with this positive cash generation being partially
offset by repayment of a £2.4m VAT liability which was deferred from May 2020
as part of the Group's COVID support measures.
(1 )See the non-underlying items section in this Financial Review
(2)Underlying other operating expenses are defined in the 'Underlying
performance measures' section below and the reconciliation between this
measure and the GAAP measure is shown in the 'Financials' table at the front
of this Financial Review
(3 )Underlying profit / (loss) before taxation is defined in the 'Underlying
performance measures' section below and the reconciliation between this
measure and the GAAP measure is shown in the 'Financials' table at the front
of this Financial Review
(4 )Net cash is cash and cash equivalents less borrowings
(5 )Gross margin % is gross profit divided by revenue
Underlying performance measures
In the course of the last three years, the Group has encountered a series of
unprecedented and unusual challenges. These gave rise to a number of
significant non-underlying items in 2018 and consequential items continued
into 2019 as the Group addressed the impact of these challenges, predominantly
as part of its Turnaround Plan. The impact of COVID-19 in 2020 has also
given rise to a material non-underlying item in the form of a holiday pay
accrual. In 2021, the Group has incurred some non-recurring restructuring
and operational costs. Further details are provided below in this Financial
Review.
Consequently, adjusted measures of underlying other operating expenses and
underlying profit / (loss) before taxation have been presented as the measures
of financial performance. Adoption of these measures results in
non-underlying items being excluded to enable a meaningful evaluation of the
performance of the Group compared to prior periods.
These alternative measures are entirely consistent with how the Board monitors
the financial performance of the Group and the underlying profit / (loss)
before taxation is the basis of performance targets for incentive plans for
the Executive Directors and senior management team.
Non-underlying items consist of non-recurring costs, share based payments and
Commercial Agreement amortisation. Non-recurring costs are excluded because
they are not expected to repeat in future years. These costs are therefore
not included in these alternative performance measures as they would distort
how the performance and progress of the Group is assessed and evaluated.
Share based payments are subject to volatility and fluctuation and are
excluded from these alternative performance measures as such changes would
again potentially distort the evaluation of the Group's performance year to
year.
Finally, Commercial Agreement amortisation is also excluded from these
alternative performance measures because the Board believes that exclusion of
this enables a better evaluation of the Group's underlying performance year to
year.
Revenue
Revenue for 2021 was £143.3m compared to £113.2m for 2020, representing an
increase of 26.6% with the prior period comparative adversely impacted by the
cessation of installation activity between late March and the end of May
2020. Revenue versus 2019 represents growth of 13.5% and this increase is
more representative of the Group's improving revenue trajectory.
Frames installed volume improved by 12.1% versus 2020 to 183,374 frames, which
is 3.6% lower than 2019. The revenue improvement exceeds the volume
performance for both comparative periods as a result of improvements in the
following areas:
· The average frame price increased by 12.4% year on year to £791
(2020: £704, 2019: £678). The impact of necessary list price increases
alongside the continued drive to reduce discount levels and optimise margins
are the main components to this improvement.
· The growth in the average frame price was also despite a marginal
adverse average price effect due to a lower mix of higher-priced composite
guard doors of 7.3% versus 7.6% and 9.2% for 2020 and 2019 respectively.
· Alongside the favourable average frame price change, the results
of the Group's project to reduce finance subsidy costs incurred as part of its
consumer finance offering, which was launched in H2 2020, are now being almost
fully realised this year. These reductions follow changes to our promotional
finance portfolio in late 2020 which have generated a £1.9m benefit versus
2020 and a £3.3m benefit versus more comparable volumes and full year cost of
2019.
Following a comprehensive re-tender process with both existing and potential
new partners at the start of 2021, we expect finance subsidy costs to be a
minimal net cost to the Group. At the same time, we remain focussed on
ensuring we have a market-leading set of payment options available to our
customers.
· The average number of frames per order has also increased to 4.25
in the year, which represents an increase of 3.4% and 3.7% over 2020 and 2019
respectively. The Group has driven a higher order size which, alongside the
average frame price growth described above, has resulted in an increase in the
average order value versus 2020 of 16.1% to £4,032. Focus on improving
metrics such as these has underpinned the improvements in the Group's gross
margin.
Gross profit
Gross profit was £43.8m, growth of 53.7% over 2020 and 37.2% over 2019. The
Group's gross margin percentage improved significantly by 540bps to 30.5%
versus 2020's 25.1%. This also represents a 527bps increase versus the 25.3%
gross margin percentage of 2019.
The combination of the installation volume increase alongside the average
price and finance subsidy reductions described above were all contributors to
the growth in gross profit and the improvement in the Group's gross margin
percentage. Further components behind the improving trends were as follows:
· The Group began the year with an order book that was 83% ahead of
the prior year which proved important in protecting the Group from selling
restrictions at the start of the year when a third national lockdown was
required in response to the COVID pandemic. By the end of 2021, the order
book had reduced by 8.4% versus the record closing position of 2020. The
order book remains healthy with 2021's closing position still over a third
higher than any other year excluding 2020. The year on year reduction in the
record opening order book equates to a £0.4m gross margin benefit in 2021.
· The third national lockdown in the UK restricted the Group's
selling and marketing activities in January. Once the Group was able to
restart activities in February 2021, the Group experienced a strong consumer
response that was similar to that experienced in the second half of 2020.
Lead generation activities were increased across all lead sources and costs
per lead remained low compared to pre-pandemic levels. As lockdown
restrictions lifted in late April and May, lead costs increased and have
returned to levels similar to those in 2019.
Alongside the lead generation cost context described above, the Group has
continued to make strong progress on lead management, conversion optimisation
and sales performance which has reduced cancellation rates and mitigated some
of the inflationary pressures of lead generation.
As a result of all these factors, the cost to order intake ratio for 2021 was
8.6% lower than in 2020.
· The improvement in gross profit versus the prior period is also
despite a £0.7m reclaim in 2020 under the CJRS scheme to contribute to the
costs of the Group's furloughed factory employees during the 2020 lockdown.
Although there has continued to be disruption caused by COVID-required
isolations and illness across 2021, the return to higher / more normal levels
of activity across the period has driven an improved utilisation of fixed
costs included within cost of sales. This has also contributed to the
improvement in the Group's gross margin percentage.
Underlying other operating expenses
Underlying other operating expenses were £34.5m for the year, which
represents an increase of £2.5m compared to both 2020 and 2019. 2020
comparatives are reduced by the receipt of a £1.1m furlough claim and thus
2019 is a more meaningful comparative to understand the operating cost base of
the business. The key factors behind the increase versus 2019 are as
follows:
· The Group has invested in both its customer service resource
levels and its installations capacity in the last 18 months. Since 2019, the
Group has re-opened its Crawley depot and also opened new depots in Nottingham
(prior to the end of 2020) and Milton Keynes (August 2021). In conjunction
with this increased depot footprint, further resources have been added to
manage operations.
· The Group has increased investment in additional IT licensing and
infrastructure costs as it continues to rollout new technology. This
includes further upgrades to network security and resilience alongside the
implementation of Office 365 and Microsoft Teams. The latter have
facilitated the continuation of operations throughout the last two years
within the context of the COVID pandemic which was necessitated by more people
working remotely than prior to the pandemic. This investment has also helped
to mitigate the impact of the cyber attack in January 2022.
· Finally, marketing spend increased by £0.3m versus 2019 which
includes costs of brand consultancy, consumer insight research and other
services incurred in advance of the Group's return to TV advertising in
February 2022.
Underlying profit / (loss) before taxation
Underlying profit before taxation was £7.6m versus a loss in 2020 of £(4.8)m
and a loss of £(1.5)m for 2019. This loss is before the non-underlying
items described below.
Non-underlying items
A total of £1.7m has been separately treated as non-underlying items for the
year (2020: £1.4m, 2019: £2.3m). The current year's total consists of
£0.5m of non-recurring costs (2020: £0.5m, 2019: £1.9m), a £0.7m share
based payment charge (2020: £0.4m, 2019: £0.0m) and £0.5m (2020 and 2019:
£0.5m) of Commercial Agreement (Intangible Asset) amortisation. The table
below shows the full breakdown of these items:
2021 2020 2019
£000 £000 £000
Holiday accrual (79) 470 -
RSA related costs 147 - -
Litigation Costs 90 74 -
Restructuring and operational costs 300 266 1,058
Modification of right-of-use assets and liabilities (83) 5 -
Impairment of right-of-use assets 122 - 692
Reversal of prior year impairment of right-of-use assets - (292) -
IT project impairment 14 - 113
Commercial Agreement service fee - - (13)
Total non-recurring costs (note 6) 511 523 1,850
Commercial Agreement amortisation 452 452 452
Equity-settled share based payment charges 687 424 12
Total non-underlying items 1,650 1,399 2,314
The holiday pay release represents a release for part of an accrual made at
the end of 2020 which arose as a result of the impact of the shutdown of
operations and resultant extension of 2020 leave entitlement into future
holiday years in line with the legislation. This increased the level of
deferred holiday entitlement of our people at the end of 2020 which was
recognised as an accrual in 2020 and will reverse in full by 2023. This item
was excluded from the Group's underlying performance measures to ensure
performance of the business is not skewed by both the expense in 2020, or its
subsequent use in 2021/22.
The Group incurred £0.3m (2020: £0.3m, 2019: £1.1m) of restructuring and
non-recurring operational costs which reduced the Group's overheads in some
areas. In addition, non-recurring costs of £0.1m were incurred linked to
the issuance of the Restricted Share Award in June 2021.
As reported in the last three years, the Commercial Agreement arose as a
result of an agreement entered into in 2018 with Mr M. Misra which encompassed
a five year non-compete agreement and the provision of services by Mr Misra in
support of the continued recovery of Safestyle. The Group agreed
consideration with Mr Misra subject to the satisfaction of both clear
performance conditions by him over five years and Safestyle's trading
performance in 2019.
The non-compete element of the Commercial Agreement was accounted for as an
intangible asset on the basis that it is an identifiable, non-monetary item
without physical substance, which is within the control of the entity and is
capable of generating future economic benefits for the entity. The
intangible asset was measured based on the fair value of the consideration
that the Group expects to issue under the terms of the agreement and is being
amortised over five years which matches the term of the non-compete
arrangement.
Share based payment charges predominantly increased versus 2020 due to charges
in relation to the Restricted Share Award granted in October 2020 that vested
in June 2021.
The items classified as non-recurring costs in the Consolidated Income
Statement, the share based payment charges and the amortisation of the
intangible asset created as a result of the Commercial Agreement reached in
2018 have all been excluded from the underlying profit / (loss) before
taxation performance measure to enable a meaningful evaluation of the
performance of the Group from year to year.
Earnings per share
Basic earnings per share for the period were 3.5p for the year compared to a
loss of (4.3)p for 2020. Diluted earnings per share were 3.4p (2020: loss of
(4.3)p, 2019 loss of (4.0)p). The basis for these calculations is detailed
in note 7.
Net cash and cashflow
As reported previously, the actions taken last year to protect liquidity and
maintain the Group's borrowing facility ensured that it could invest quickly
to facilitate a strong restart to trading following cessation of business
activity for the first lockdown in 2020. The Group continued to increase its
net cash last year, closing at £12.1m versus £7.6m at the end of 2020.
£4.5m of the Group's £7.5m facility, being that of the term loan, remains
drawn with the remaining £3.0m revolving credit facility undrawn.
Net cash inflow from operating activities, including the cashflow impact of
non-underlying items, was £9.6m (2020: £3.4m). The inflow for the period
reflects the strength of the Group's operating model with trading results
correlating positively with cashflow generation.
Partially offsetting the impact of this positive profit to cash conversion was
further working capital investment of £0.7m in the Group's raw material
inventories last year to protect 'on time in full' fulfilment from short-term
supply chain disruption. This builds on significant investment in profile
stock in 2020 which was also to underpin continuity of supply; this stock
remains in place.
Furthermore, the overall net cash inflow from operating activities is also
after the Group has repaid £2.4m of VAT that was deferred in 2020 as part of
the Group's COVID support measures. The final payment of £0.1m was made in
January 2022.
Capital expenditure increased to £1.2m versus £0.6m in 2020 with the prior
year representing a reduced level of activity similar to operating expenses.
The majority of the capital expenditure in the year was in relation to ongoing
investment in the Group's IT infrastructure and systems.
Dividends
The Board does not propose a final dividend (2020: £nil). As reported in
the CEO's statement, based on current performance expectations, the Group will
generate further net cash by the end of 2022. The Board's capital allocation
policy is to firstly utilise surplus cash to fund forthcoming strategic
initiatives. If all current initiatives are funded as required and surplus
cash remains, the Board signals its intent to return to the dividend list in
the relatively near future.
Rob Neale
Chief Financial Officer
20 April 2022
Consolidated Income Statement for the year ended 2 January 2022
Note 2021 2020
£000 £000
Revenue 4 143,251 113,191
Cost of sales (99,496) (84,732)
Gross profit 43,755 28,459
Expected credit losses expensed (362) (890)
Other operating expenses(1) (35,807) (32,566)
Operating profit / (loss) 7,586 (4,997)
Finance income - 1
Finance costs(2) (1,623) (1,161)
Profit / (loss) before taxation 5,963 (6,157)
Underlying profit / (loss) before taxation before non-recurring costs, 7,613 (4,758)
Commercial Agreement amortisation and share based payment charges
Non-recurring costs 6 (511) (523)
Commercial Agreement amortisation (452) (452)
Equity settled share based payment charges (687) (424)
Profit / (loss) before taxation 5,963 (6,157)
Taxation (1,188) 1,103
Profit / (loss) for the period 4,775 (5,054)
Earnings per share
Basic (pence per share) 7 3.5p (4.3p)
Diluted (pence per share) 7 3.4p (4.3p)
(1)Other operating expenses includes £511k (2020: £523k) of non-recurring
costs, £452k (2020: £452k) of Commercial Agreement amortisation
and £687k (2020: £424k) of share based payment charges. Adjusting for
these gives underlying other operating expenses
of £34,157k (2020: £31,167k). See Financial Review for details.
(2 )Finance costs includes £761k (2020: £487k) of lease related interest
costs (see note 9) and £269k (2020: £nil) for the unwind of the provision
discount in the year.
There is no other comprehensive income for the year. 2020 represents the
year ended 3 January 2021.
All operations were continuing throughout all years.
Consolidated Statement of Financial Position as at 2 January 2022
Note 2021 2020
£000 £000
Assets
Intangible assets - Trademarks 504 504
Intangible assets - Goodwill 20,758 20,758
Intangible assets - Software 870 850
Intangible assets - Other 832 1,284
Property, plant and equipment 10,811 11,475
Right-of-use assets 9 11,146 8,004
Deferred taxation asset 1,053 1,980
Non-current assets 45,974 44,855
Inventories 5,298 4,545
Trade and other receivables 4,880 5,663
Cash and cash equivalents 16,351 11,705
Current assets 26,529 21,913
Total assets 72,503 66,768
Equity
Called up share capital 1,386 1,368
Share premium account 89,495 89,495
Profit and loss account 10,893 5,347
Common control transaction reserve (66,527) (66,527)
35,247 29,683
Liabilities
Trade and other payables 8 18,052 21,929
Lease liabilities 9 4,104 2,524
Corporation taxation liability 159 -
Provision for liabilities and charges 1,274 1,118
Current liabilities 23,589 25,571
Provision for liabilities and charges 2,109 1,801
Lease liabilities 9 7,327 5,586
Borrowings 4,231 4,127
Non-current liabilities 13,667 11,514
Total liabilities 37,256 37,085
Total equity and liabilities 72,503 66,768
2020 represents the financial position at 3 January 2021.
Consolidated Statement of Changes in Equity for the year ended 2 January 2022
Share capital Share premium Profit and loss account Common control transaction reserve Total equity
£000 £000 £000 £000 £000
Balance at 30 December 2019 828 81,845 10,009 (66,527) 26,155
Total comprehensive (loss) for the year - - (5,054) - (5,054)
Transactions with owners recorded directly in equity:
Issue of new shares 500 8,000 - - 8,500
Transaction costs relating to the issue of new shares - (350) - - (350)
Deferred taxation asset taken to reserves - - 8 - 8
Issue of shares - Commercial Agreement 40 - (40) - -
Equity settled share based payment transactions - - 424 - 424
Balance at 3 January 2021 1,368 89,495 5,347 (66,527) 29,683
Total comprehensive profit for the year - - 4,775 - 4,775
Transactions with owners recorded directly in equity:
Issue of new shares 18 - (18) - -
Deferred taxation asset taken to reserves - - 4 - 4
Corporation taxation taken to reserves - - 98 - 98
Equity settled share based payment transactions - - 687 - 687
Balance at 2 January 2022 1,386 89,495 10,893 (66,527) 35,247
Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows for the year ended 2 January 2022
Note 2021 2020
£000 £000
Cash flows from operating activities
Profit / (loss) for the year 4,775 (5,054)
Adjustments for:
Depreciation of plant, property and equipment 1,473 1,559
Depreciation of right-of-use assets 9 3,882 3,745
Amortisation of intangible fixed assets 842 880
Reversal of impairment loss - (292)
Impairment of right-of-use assets 9 122 -
Modification of right-of-use assets and liabilities 9 (83) 5
Finance income - (1)
Finance expense 1,623 1,161
IT project impairment 14 -
Equity settled share based payment charges 687 424
Taxation charge / (credit) 1,188 (1,103)
14,523 1,324
(Increase) in inventories (753) (1,820)
Decrease / (increase) in trade and other receivables 783 (1,664)
(Decrease) / increase in trade and other payables 8 (3,877) 6,545
Increase in provisions 195 38
(3,652) 3,099
Other interest (paid) (1,250) (986)
Net cash inflow from operating activities 9,621 3,437
Cash flows from investing activities
Acquisition of property, plant and equipment (809) (401)
Interest received - 1
Acquisition of intangible fixed assets (424) (156)
Net cash (outflow) from investing activities (1,233) (556)
Cash flows from financing activities
Proceeds from issue of share capital - 8,500
Transaction costs relating to the issue of share capital - (350)
Proceeds from loans and borrowings - 2,000
Repayment of borrowings - (2,000)
Transaction costs relating to loans and borrowings - (39)
Payment of lease liabilities 9 (3,742) (3,722)
Net cash (outflow) / inflow from financing activities (3,742) 4,389
Net inflow in cash and cash equivalents 4,646 7,270
Cash and cash equivalents at start of period 11,705 4,435
Cash and cash equivalents at end of period 16,351 11,705
2020 represents the year ended 3 January 2021.
Notes to the year end financial information
1 Statement of compliance
Whilst the financial information included in this Preliminary Announcement has
been prepared on the basis of the requirements of International Financial
Reporting Standards (IFRSs) in issue, as adopted by the European Union, this
announcement does not itself contain sufficient information to comply with
IFRS.
The financial information set out above does not constitute the company's
statutory accounts for the financial years 2021 or 2020 but is derived from
those accounts. Statutory accounts for 2020 have been delivered to the
registrar of companies with the Jersey Financial Statements Commission (JSFC),
and those for 2021 will be delivered in due course. Grant Thornton UK LLP
has reported on those accounts. Their reports for 2021 and 2020 were (i)
unqualified, (ii) did not include a reference of any matters to which the
auditor drew attention by way of emphasis without qualifying their report and
(iii) did not contain a statement under section 113B (3) or (6) of the
Companies (Jersey) Law 1991.
Safestyle UK plc is a public listed group incorporated in Jersey. The
Group's shares are traded on AIM. The Group is required under AIM rule 19 to
provide shareholders with audited consolidated financial statements. The
registered office address of the Safestyle UK plc is 47 Esplanade, St Helier,
Jersey JE1 0BD.
The Group is not required to present parent company information.
2 General information and basis of preparation
The Group's financial statements for the financial year 2021, which ended on 2
January 2022 ("financial statements"), have been prepared on a going concern
basis under the historical cost convention and are in accordance with
International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) as adopted by the EU and
the International Financial Reporting Standards Interpretations Committee
interpretations issued by the International Accounting Standards Board
("IASB") that are effective or issued and early adopted as at the time of
preparing these financial statements.
Safestyle UK plc was incorporated on 8 November 2013. On 3 December 2013
Safestyle UK plc acquired Style Group Holdings Limited through a share for
share exchange. This was accounted for as a common control transaction. The
result of this is that the financial statements of Style Group Holdings have
been included in the Group consolidated financial statements of Safestyle UK
plc at their book value at the IFRS transition date of 1 January 2010 with the
assumption that the Group was in existence for all the periods presented.
The excess of the cost at the time of acquisition over its book value has
been recorded as a common control transaction reserve.
The accounting policies set out below have unless otherwise stated, been
applied consistently to all periods presented in these financial statements.
The preparation of financial statements requires Management to exercise its
judgement in the process of applying accounting policies. The areas
involving a higher degree of judgement or complexity, or areas where
assumptions and estimates are significant to these financial statements are
disclosed in note 5.
(a) New and amended standards adopted by the Group.
The Group has adopted the following new standards and amendments for the first
time. Unless otherwise stated, they have not had a material impact on the
financial statements.
· Interest Rate Benchmark Reform 2 (Amendments to IFRS 9, IAS 39,
IFRS 7, IFRS 4 and IFRS 16)
· Amendments to References to the Conceptual Framework (Various
Standards)
· COVID-19 Rent Related Concessions beyond 30 June 2021 (Amendments
to IFRS 16)
(b) New standards, amendments and interpretations issued but not effective and
not early adopted.
At the date of approval of these financial statements, the following
standards, amendments and interpretations which have not been applied in these
financial statements were in issue but not yet effective (and in some cases
have not yet been adopted by the EU):
· IFRS 17 Insurance Contracts
· Amendments to IFRS 17 Insurance Contracts (Amendments to IFRS 17
and IFRS 4)
· References to the Conceptual Framework
· Proceeds before Intended Use (Amendments to IAS 16)
· Onerous Contracts - Cost of Fulfilling a Contract (Amendments to
IAS 37)
· Annual Improvements to IFRS Standards 2018-2020 Cycle (Amendments
to IFRS 1, IFRS 9, IFRS 16, IAS 41)
· Classification of Liabilities as Current or Non-Current
(Amendments to IAS 1)
· Deferred taxation related to Assets and Liabilities from a Single
Transaction
Basis of consolidation
Subsidiaries are entities that the Company has power over, exposure or rights
to variable returns and an ability to use its power to affect those returns.
In assessing control, potential voting rights that are currently exercisable
or convertible are taken into account.
The financial statements of subsidiaries are included in the consolidated
financial statements from the date that control commences until the date
control ceases.
Intragroup transactions and balances are eliminated on consolidation.
Year end
The financial statements are presented for the year ended on the closest
Sunday to the end of December. This date was 2 January 2022 for the current
reporting year and 3 January 2021 for the prior year. All references made
throughout these accounts for the financial year 2021 are for the period 4
January 2021 to 2 January 2022 and references to the financial year 2020 are
for the period 30 December 2019 to 3 January 2021.
3 Going concern
The financial statements are prepared on a going concern basis which the
Directors believe to be appropriate for the following reasons.
The Group made a statutory profit of £4.8m in the financial year 2021 (2020:
(loss) of £(5.1)m) and had net current assets of £2.9m at the end of the
financial year 2021 (2020: net current liabilities of £(3.7)m. As detailed
in the Financial Review, the profit reported represents a return to full year
profitability for the Group for the first time since 2017. Net cash improved
further to £12.1m at the end of the year, an increase of £4.5m versus the
prior year. Actions taken to protect cash during the pandemic lockdown in 2020
have ceased and the deferral of a £2.5m VAT liability has been settled;
working capital is being managed as normal.
The Group has banking facilities which consist of a £4.5m term loan and a
£3.0m revolving credit facility. This facility matures in October 2023 and
the finance agreement contains certain covenants, including a minimum EBITDA
to be tested on a cumulative monthly basis. By the end of the financial
year, the EBITDA covenant headroom had increased significantly to £7.2m.
The £4.5m term loan was fully drawn at the end of the year, while the
revolving credit facility was unutilised. This has been the case since May
2020 and remains the case at the date of signing the accounts. The Group
presently has sufficient liquidity to repay the term loan prior to, or on the
facility maturity date, if required.
The Directors have prepared forecasts covering the period to the end of the
financial year 2023. The forecasts include a number of assumptions in
relation to sales volume, pricing, margin improvements and overhead
investment. The Directors believe the key assumptions to be cautious and
realistic with order intake for FY22 to be 10% below the levels achieved in H2
20. This target is deemed to be highly achievable. The Group has a strong
opening order book and order intake at this level would match the current
capacity of the installation network. Installation volumes are forecast to
grow by 5.5% versus 2020, due to a combination of the full year effect of the
new Milton Keynes Depot, the recovery of the post-lockdown customer service
backlogs as well the expectation that the ongoing workforce availability due
to ongoing COVID restrictions experienced throughout 2021 will subside. The
Group is forecasting significant increases in manufacturing costs as suppliers
pass on increasing energy and raw material prices that they are incurring
themselves. Increases in overhead costs have also been forecast as the Group
continues its strategic agenda to invest in IT, customer services, field
operations as well as annual pay increases in line with rising inflation.
These forecasts result in further increases in EBITDA covenant headroom, net
cash and liquidity.
Whilst the Directors believe the assumptions above to be sensible, the
operating environment is exposed to a number of risks which could impact the
actual performance achieved in 2022. These risks include, but are not
limited to, reducing consumer confidence due to the general economic
conditions, delivering the required levels of order intake as the economy
reopens and competition from other sectors increases and the Group's ability
to maintain margins given the rising input costs.
The Directors have modelled various sensitised downside scenarios for 2022 and
2023. For 2022, these included a scenario which modelled a 9% reduction in
order intake versus 2020 and installation volumes at similar levels to the
COVID-impacted year of 2020. In this scenario, mitigating actions within the
control of management, including reductions in areas of discretionary spend
could be deployed. Even with the above significant reductions in activity,
the resultant cash flow forecasts and projections show that the Group will be
able to increase its net cash position and operate within the financial
covenants of the borrowing facility.
A sensitised downside scenario has been modelled where performance is
significantly worse than the scenario described above. In this scenario,
whilst a breach of the covenant tests on the borrowing facilities would occur,
the Group would still have sufficient cash to repay the borrowing facility.
On 25 January 2022, the Group was subject to a sophisticated cyber attack.
The impact of the attack on the business was partly mitigated by recent
investments to modernise the Group's IT infrastructure. Business continuity
plans enabled the business to continue to sell, survey, manufacture, and
install, albeit installations levels were reduced for several weeks. The
Group's customer service operations were also disrupted. However, with sales
remaining strong, the order book has continued to grow and net cash and
liquidity has been maintained. The impact of the incident on installation
activity levels is now fully overcome and by the end of March, installation
levels were fully back to original plans levels. The Group has maintained
its hugely important self-employed installation capacity which has underpinned
the swift recovery from the disruption. Elements of the pre-existing IT
strategy have been accelerated following the attack to further increase the
Group's cyber security defences.
The Directors have compared the financial impact of the cyber attack to its
sensitivity scenarios and notes that the sales order intake has remained well
ahead of these scenarios and is largely in line with original plans. Whilst
weekly installation revenue dropped briefly below the sensitised scenario for
a few weeks, the Group's weekly revenue by the end of March had recovered to
20% higher than the downside scenario. The Group has returned to trading
profitably following the recovery from the incident.
The Directors have considered the cyber attack as a post balance sheet event
and have determined that this is a non-adjusting event as the event occurred
after the reporting period. Aside from the short-term impact on trading
described above, the Directors do not expect there to be any consequential
cash outflows as a result of the cyber attack and therefore no such items have
been included in any of the sensitivity scenarios.
In forming their view on preparing the financial statements on a going concern
basis, the Directors have reviewed the impact of the cyber attack on the
business and highlight the continued strong order intake performance, record
order book, maintained liquidity levels and the swift return to expected
operational levels following the incident.
Based on the above the above indications and work prepared, the Directors
believe that it is appropriate to prepare the financial statements on a going
concern basis.
4 Significant accounting policies
Revenue recognition
The Group earns revenue from the design, manufacture, delivery and
installation of domestic double-glazed replacement windows and doors.
There are five main steps followed for revenue recognition:
· Identifying the contract with a customer
· Identifying the performance obligations
· Determining the transaction price
· Allocating the transaction price to the performance obligations;
and
· Recognising revenue when or as an entity satisfied performance
obligations.
The various stages of the performance obligations are the design, manufacture,
delivery of and installation of domestic double-glazed replacement windows and
doors.
In applying the principal of recognising revenue related to satisfaction of
performance obligations under IFRS 15, the Group considers that the final end
product is dependent upon a number of services in the process that may be
capable of distinct identifiable performance obligations. However, where
obligations are not separately identifiable, in terms of a customer being
unable to enjoy the benefit in isolation, the standard allows for these to be
combined. The Group considers that in the context of the contracts held
these are not distinct. As such the performance obligations are treated as
one combined performance obligation and revenue is recognised in full, at a
point in time, being on completion of the installation. Revenue is shown net
of discounts, sales returns, charges for the provision of consumer credit and
VAT and other sales related taxes. Revenue is measured based on the
consideration specified in a contract with a customer.
There is no identifiable amount included in the final price for a warranty, as
the Group provides a guarantee on all installations.
Payments received in advance are held within other creditors, as a contract
liability. The final payment is due on installation.
A survey fee is paid at the point of agreeing the contract and the customer
has up to 14 days, defined in the contract, to change their minds. If the
customer changes their mind after this cooling off period, the Group has the
right to retain this survey fee and as such revenue for this is recognised at
the point in time that this becomes non-refundable.
The Group offers consumer finance products from a range of providers whilst
acting as a credit broker and not the lender. The Group earns commission and
pays subsidies for its role as a credit broker. As the Group is acting as
the agent and not the principal, commission is not disclosed as a separate
income stream.
In addition to the above, the Group recognises revenue from the sale of
materials for recycling. The revenue is recognised when the materials are
collected by the recycling company which represents the completion of the
performance obligation. The Group have determined that this revenue is
derived from its ordinary activities and as such this balance is recognised
within revenue.
Non-recurring items
Non-underlying items consist of non-recurring costs, share based payments and
Commercial Agreement amortisation. Non-recurring costs are excluded because
they are not expected to repeat in future years.
5 Accounting estimates and judgements
When preparing the Group's consolidated financial statements, management makes
a number of judgements, estimates and assumptions about the recognition and
measurement of assets, liabilities, revenue and expenses. Actual results can
differ from these estimates. Estimates and underlying assumptions are
reviewed on an ongoing basis. Revisions to estimates are recognised
prospectively.
Significant management judgements
The following are the judgements made by management in applying the accounting
policies of the Group that have the most significant effect on these
consolidated financial statements.
Recognition of deferred taxation assets
The extent to which deferred taxation assets can be recognised is based on an
assessment of the probability that future taxable income will be available
against which the deductible temporary differences and taxation loss
carry-forwards can be utilised. The deferred taxation asset of £1,053k
(2020: £1,980k) has been recognised on the basis that the Group is
forecasting to make sufficient levels of profits in future periods.
Estimation uncertainty
Impairment of goodwill
In assessing impairment, management estimates the recoverable amount of each
asset or cash generating unit based on expected future cash flows and uses an
appropriate rate to discount them. Estimation uncertainty relates to
assumptions about future operating results and the determination of a suitable
discount rate. A discount rate of 11% has been applied to the impairment
assessment calculation. This was calculated and compared to the discount
rates disclosed by a range of comparable quoted companies. Management used
judgement in the decision to use a discount factor of 11%.
Dilapidations provision
The Group has a portfolio of leased properties that sales branches and
installation depots operate from. A dilapidations provision is provided for
leased properties where the lease agreement contains a contractual obligation
to undertake remedial works at the end of the lease term and where
wear-and-tear or damage on the property has occurred. The calculation of the
estimate is based on historical experience of cost to rectify upon exiting
similar properties. The estimated costs are subject to estimation
uncertainty as the final payment agreed may differ to the estimated cost given
the process whereby dilapidations are negotiated. If the effect of
discounting is material, the dilapidations provision is determined by
calculating the expected future cash flows at a pre-taxation rate that
reflects current market assessments of the time value of money, and when
appropriate, the risks specific to the liability.
Product guarantee provision
The Group guarantees all of its products, which in the majority of cases
covers a period of 10 years. The provision is calculated to cover the cost
of fulfilling any guarantee work to its customers and is based on the expected
future costs of rectifying faults and the future rate of product failure
arising within the guarantee period. The level of provision required to
cover this cost is subject to estimation uncertainty. If the effect of
discounting is material, the guarantee provision is determined by calculating
the expected future cash flows at a pre-taxation rate that reflects current
market assessments of the time value of money, and when appropriate, the risks
specific to the liability.
Expected credit loss for trade receivables
The Group assesses, on a forward-looking basis, the expected credit losses
('ECL') associated with its trade receivables. This is based on historical
experience, external indicators and forward-looking information to calculate
the expected credit losses.
6 Non-recurring costs
2021 2020
£000 £000
Holiday pay accrual (79) 470
RSA related costs 147 -
Litigation costs 90 74
Restructuring and operational costs 300 266
Modification of right-of-use assets and liabilities (83) 5
Impairment of right-of-use assets 122 -
Reversal of prior year impairment of right-of-use assets - (292)
IT project impairment 14 -
Total non-recuring costs 511 523
The holiday pay accrual arose as a result of the impact of the shutdown of
operations and resultant extension of 2020 leave entitlement which, for some
employees, is up to March 2023. The release in the current reporting period
represents a partial-unwinding of the original accrual booked in 2020 due to
the deferred holiday subsequently taken in the year.
RSA related costs are the employer related taxes associated with the issue of
Restricted Share Award Scheme during the year.
Litigation costs are mainly expenses incurred as a result of an ongoing legal
dispute between the Group and an ex-agent. These costs are predominantly
legal advisor's fees.
Restructuring and operational costs are expenses incurred, including
redundancy payments, as a result of changes being made to reduce the cost
structure of the business.
Modification of right-of-use assets and liabilities relates to the closure of
properties identified as right-of-use assets during the period.
Impairment of right-of-use assets relates to the closure of properties
identified as assets under IFRS 16 where the lease commitment extended beyond
2021.
Reversal of prior year impairment of right-of-use assets is the reversal of an
impairment charge made in 2019 following closure of the Crawley installation
depot which was subsequently reopened in 2020.
IT project impairment charge represented the impairment of a capital
investment made in a new electronic survey system that was stopped following
results of field trials.
For further detail on the 2020 non-recurring costs, please refer to the
Group's Annual Report & Accounts 2020.
7 Earnings per share
2021 2020
(3.5) (4.3)
Basic earnings per ordinary share (pence)
Diluted earnings per ordinary share (pence) (3.4) (4.3)
a) Basic earnings per share
The calculation of basic earnings per share has been based on the following
profit attributable to ordinary shareholders and weighted-average number of
shares outstanding.
2021 2020
£000 £000
Profit / (loss) attributable to ordinary shareholders 4,775 (5,054)
Weighted-average number of ordinary shares (basic)
No of shares '000 No of shares '000
In issue during the period 137,753 117,749
b) Diluted earnings per share
The calculation of diluted earnings per share has been based on the following
profit attributable to ordinary shareholders and weighted-average number of
ordinary shares outstanding after adjustment for the effects of all dilutive
potential ordinary shares.
2021 2020
£000 £000
Profit / (loss) attributable to ordinary shareholders (diluted) 4,775 (5,054)
Weighted-average number of ordinary shares (diluted) No. of shares No. of shares
Weighted-average number of ordinary shares (basic) 137,753 117,749
Effect of conversion of share options 3,589 -
141,342 117,749
The average market value of the Group's shares for the purpose of calculating
the dilutive effect of share options was based on quoted market prices for the
period during which the options were outstanding.
Diluted earnings per share is calculated by adjusting the earnings and number
of shares for the effects of dilutive options. In the event that a loss is
recorded for the period, share options are not considered to have a dilutive
effect.
8 Trade and other payables
2021 2020
£000 £000
Trade payables 7,118 7,036
Other taxation and social security costs 3,169 5,563
Other creditors and deferred income 4,747 5,025
Accruals 3,018 4,305
18,052 21,929
9 Right-of-use assets and liabilities
Properties Motor Vehicles Equipment Total
£000 £000 £000 £000
Assets
At 3 January 2021 4,770 3,034 200 8,004
Additions 2,080 5,123 256 7,459
Impairment (122) - - (122)
Modification (253) (60) - (313)
Depreciation (1,298) (2,411) (173) (3,882)
At 2 January 2022 5,177 5,686 283 11,146
Liabilities
At 3 January 2021 4,899 2,996 215 8,110
Payment (1,653) (2,657) (193) (4,503)
Additions 2,080 5,123 256 7,459
Interest 388 357 16 761
Modification (342) (54) - (396)
At 2 January 2022 5,372 5,765 294 11,431
Reconciliation of movements of liabilities to cashflows arising from financing
activities
At 3 January 2021 4,899 2,996 215 8,110
Changes from financing cash flows
Payment of lease liabilities (1,265) (2,300) (177) (3,742)
Total changes from financing cash flows (1,265) (2,300) (177) (3,742)
Other changes
New leases 2,080 5,123 256 7,459
Modification (342) (54) - (396)
Interest expense 388 357 16 761
Interest paid (388) (357) (16) (761)
Total liability-related other changes 1,738 5,069 256 7,063
At 2 January 2022 5,372 5,765 294 11,431
Liabilities classification
Current (<1 year) 1,570 2,419 115 4,104
Long term (>1 year) 3,802 3,346 179 7,327
5,372 5,765 294 11,431
The interest expense recognised in the profit and loss statement is in the
table above. No expenses relating to short-term leases and low value leases
has been recognised. The total cash outflow for leases is £4,503k (2020:
£4,209k). This comprises the payment of lease liabilities of £3,742k
(2020: £3,722k) and the interest paid of £761k (2020: £487k).
The Group has a number of leases within the business including properties for
installation depots and sales branches, vehicles and plant & equipment.
With the exception of short-term leases and leases of low-value underlying
assets, each lease is reflected in the consolidated statement of financial
position as a right-of-use asset and a lease liability. Leases are either
non-cancellable or may only be cancelled by incurring a substantive
termination fee. For leases relating to properties, the Group must keep
those properties in a good state of repair and return the properties to their
original condition at the end of the lease.
10 Post-balance sheet events
The Group was hit by a cyber attack, emanating from Russia, at the end of
January 2022. Immediately following the incident, there was a short term
impact on the Group's operations as it implemented business continuity
workarounds as it recovered its systems. The Group now has all its core
systems back up and running.
Aside from the impact above, no consequential cash outflows as a result of the
attack are expected and this is treated as a non-adjusting event as it
occurred after the balance sheet date.
Full details of the incident, as well as the response by the Group, are
included within the 'Current trading and outlook' section of the CEO's
Statement.
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