Revolution Beauty Group PLC (AIM:REVB) reported "encouraging progress" in recent months as it posted results that confirmed it swung to a £10.9 million pe-tax loss in the first half of 2024.
Under chief executive Lauren Brindley, who was appointed just over a year ago, the cosmetics group has been looking to sell off stock and refocus on a simplified product portfolio of three brands across seven categories, down from seven brands across eleven categories before.
This resulted in revenues shrinking 20% to £72.4 million in the six months ended 31 August, with the new 'core' products seeing revenue growth of 6% in the period, which included 16% growth in the second quarter.
The loss before tax reflected a charge for one-off stock provision relating to non-core stock of £10.2 million, due to the focus on clearing slow-moving discontinued inventory from previous years to generate cash.
Excluding this, underlying adjusted EBITDA came in at £3.9 million, up from £3.3 million a year ago.
A new product development process has seen sales of these items up 40% year-on-year, with 177 new products (stock keeping units - SKUs) set to be added in the second half of the year, with significant new distribution in place with Walmart, Boots and DM Germany stores, along with Amazon US online.
Brindley said: "Since launching our new strategy in February, we have substantially cut a long tail of unproductive SKUs, improved our operational delivery and made good progress with our cost savings programmes.
"Consequently, we now have a core portfolio that is growing globally with a significantly improved underlying gross margin."
She said the board expects sales to decline at a "slightly lower rate" than in the first half, with a return to growth in the fourth quarter of the year that is anticipated to accelerate through the following year.