Safestyle UK PLC (AIM:SFE) swung to a loss in the first half of the year and has trimmed its full-year profit guidance after a cyberattack in January delayed a planned pricing move designed to keep pace with soaring raw materials costs.
But with profitability having "recovered rapidly to planned levels" in May and into June, the retailer and manufacturer of PVCu replacement windows and doors returned to paying a dividend with an interim payout of 0.4p per share.
"Whilst the cyber-attack caused a delay, we implemented our Q1 price increase early in Q2 and the effect of this began to come through in our revenues in the latter part of the quarter," Safestyle chief executive Mike Gallacher said in the results statement.
"Our systems are now operating normally. We expect to continue to respond to cost pressures as necessary while also ensuring that our offering maintains its value proposition for our customers," he added.
Safestyle's revenue grew by 7.2% to £78.3mln in the six months ended July 3, 2022, with order intake up 11.7% versus the prior year period to leave the order book 17.7% larger.
Expected profits were reduced by an estimated £4mln and resulted in an adjusted loss of £1.4mln from a £5.1mln profit last time out, with a swing to a statutory loss of £2.8mln from a £4.3mln pre-tax profit last time. The net cash position fell to £13mln from £14.4mln.
Input costs in the first half increased by 20% in some cases, caused by rising energy costs being passed on by suppliers as well as higher raw material, staffing and fuel costs.
A £5mln "strategic investment programme" has been launched, with spending on TV advertising, new business development, the start of a Safestyle Academy for new fitters and a range of actions to improve customer experience and "reduce our cost of quality".
Overall, Gallagher said the company still expects to deliver both a full-year underlying profit and positive cashflow from operations, though full-year underlying profit will be "no lower than £1.0mln after the Q3 challenges and the increased new business development investment".