Sprue Aegis PLC (LON:SPRP) slumped as the termination of its distribution agreement with Newell Brands turned messy.
Newell’s BRK Brands, one of Sprue's main outlets, sent a letter terminating the agreement from March 22.
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Sprue received 12-months' notice the agreement was being ended on 31 March a year ago, but BRK has seemingly moved the date forward by nine days.
BRK Brands also alleges Sprue has breached the long-standing agreement between the two companies and as a consequence will not buy any stocks of unsold products.
Sprue, which supplies fire alarms and smoke detectors, said it will carry out an assessment of the value of these stocks but due to BRK Brands’ decision, audited final results for the year ended 31 December 2017 will not now be announced this month.
No date was given for when the results would be released, though Sprue added that its obligation to pay BRK a fixed annual distribution fee of £2.9m also ended with the termination.
Sprue shares fell 27% to 139p