The British Honey Company (AQSE:BHC) PLC (BHC) warned that its net result for 2022 is expected to fall below previous market expectations as the soaring cost of living has impacted trading in the second half of the year.
In a trading update, the Aquis-listed honey and craft spirits company forecast revenues of around £6mln for the year to 31 December 2022.
The company said trading in the first half was “solid”, driven by increased ‘white label’ business - where the customer puts their own label on the product - while its proprietary brands business also performed well.
However, it has seen more challenging conditions in the second half-year period, exacerbated by the cost-of-living increases facing households and the raw materials inflation and supply chain disruption caused by the war in Ukraine.
Many of its ‘white label’ customers are facing a more challenging sales environment and are therefore limiting their stock levels. This is having a knock-on effect on BHC’s trading, although the negative impact is being partially offset by an increase in business with supermarket customers, the company explained.
Despite the trading headwinds, the company noted that it has retained all its ‘white label’ customers and also won new ones, “which bodes well for the future”.
The group also recently achieved the British Retail Consortium standard for its production processes, which should enable it to tender for further supermarket contracts in the future.
BHC said it continues to tighten costs as it moves towards profitability.
The company’s shares were suspended on the Aquis exhange on 1 July 2022 after it requested additional time to complete the audit of its final results for 2021.
It said it is making “good progress” on the audit and that no major issues are outstanding.
The results are expected to be in line with market expectations, it noted.
It expects to release its 2021 results in mid- to late September this year, after which share trading will resume on Aquis.