LONDON (Alliance News) - Haynes Publishing Group PLC Thursday reported a swing to a pretax loss for its recently ended financial year, hit by challenging trading conditions, particularly in the North American market.
Haynes publishes technical information for professional mechanics, alongside a range of practical and DIY titles.
It proposed a final dividend of 4.0 pence per share, taking its total dividend for the year to 7.5 pence, in line with the previous year.
For the year to end-May the company reported a pretax loss of GBP7.2 million, swung from a pretax profit of GBP2.0 million a year before, as revenue declined to GBP26.1 million from GBP29.3 million and it recorded a GBP9.7 million impairment charge in relation to its North American business as a result of difficult trading conditions there.
The company attributed the decline in its revenue to key consumer retailers undertaking inventory reduction programmes, which hit its performance in the first half, although it saw an improved performance in its second half on the back of a return to more normal ordering patterns and a mid-year price increase.
Haynes said its revenue in the first quarter of its new year was 2% ahead of the previous year, as its professional product ranges in Europe continued to perform well, and its UK business has seen some bounce back. However, its North American and Australian markets continued to see challenging conditions, with first quarter revenue down 2% on the previous year.
Like many of its peers, Haynes is shifting towards digital content in order to offset the decline of traditional print. It said it has a number of digital initiatives underway, and whilst not all of these "can be expected to substantially contribute to profit immediately", it is confident they will "all make significant contributions" in a relatively short period.
The company announced earlier this month that it is launching a cost and operational review, under the remit of Non-Executive Deputy Chairman Eddie Bell. It expects to announce findings of this review in early 2016.
In May, Chief Executive Officer Eric Oakley and Chief Financial Officer Dan Benhardus announced their intention to retire next May.
Shares in Haynes were untraded Thursday morning. They last closed at 107.20p.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; hanassmith@alliancenews.com; @HanaSSAllNews
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