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(Alliance News) - Restore PLC on Wednesday said it suffered a loss in the first half of 2023, confirming a profit warning it had issued in July that had resulted in the departure of its chief executive.
Restore cut its dividend by about 30% in response but also made moves toward steadying the ship. It said it has hired Mike Killick as interim chief financial officer, starting on Monday next week. Killick was CFO of chocolate maker Thorntons PLC from 2012 to 2015. He replaces Neil Ritchie, who back in June had announced plans to step down after four years in post.
Two weeks after Ritchie's announcement, Restore issued a profit warning for 2023 and said Charles Bligh had departed immediately as CEO. Senior Independent Director Jamie Hopkins was named interim CEO, and Chair Sharon Baylay-Bell became executive chair.
On Wednesday, Restore said: "Good progress is being made with the group's management succession planning, and further updates on the ongoing search processes for a new CEO and the permanent CFO roles will be made in due course."
Restore also revealed it swung to a pretax loss of GBP25.9 million in the six months that ended June 30 from a GBP14.1 million profit a year before. Revenue was down just 0.5% to GBP139.6 million from GBP140.3 million, but Restore took a GBP32.5 million non-cash impairment of the value of its Datashred business.
On an adjusted basis, pretax profit was down 28% to GBP15.1 million from GBP20.9 million.
Restore cut its interim dividend in line with the adjusted result, declaring a 1.85 pence per share payout, down 29% from 2.6p a year before.
Restore said current trading remains in line with its lowered expectations of adjusted pretax profit of GBP31 million for all of 2023. This would be down from GBP41.0 million in 2022.
Restore shares were up 0.8% at 127.00 pence early Wednesday in London. The stock is down 71% over the past 12 months.
By Tom Waite, Alliance News editor
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