DODS.L Regulatory News (DODS)

6 Nov 2008 07:00



HUVEAUX PLC ("Huveaux")

Board Changes and Trading Update

Huveaux announces today that John Van Kuffeler, Founder and Non-Executive Chairman, has resigned as a Director of the Group with immediate effect. Kevin Hand (the Senior Non-Executive Director) has been appointed Non-Executive Chairman of the Group. At the same time, John Clarke has resigned from his position as Non-Executive Director with immediate effect.

The Board has also reviewed the latest forecast trading outcome for the year ending 31st December 2008.

As expected, the "back to school" period showed a steady pick up in sales within the Education Division broadly in line with our expectations. However, the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, Ed Balls, announced on the 14th October 2008 that SATs for 14 year olds (Key Stage 3) were to be abolished with immediate effect. This announcement came without any forewarning and represented a complete u-turn from all previous announcements. This change will have a material effect on Huveaux, along with all other education publishers who had prepared materials for the courses already started in schools.

Following the abolition of the SATs at KS3, Huveaux anticipates that sales to schools of its "National Test Practice Papers" and "Success Guides and Workbooks" for Key Stage 3 will be significantly reduced and that there may be a knock-on effect on its other revision products at Key Stage 3 level, as schools re-assess their requirements, pending further guidance from the Government in the New Year. Actions are being taken within the Division to mitigate the effect of the government's policy change and to ensure that product is available for the new School Report Card and internal testing system.

For this specific reason, sales and profits within the Education Division will be significantly below expectations for 2008 and the outlook for this Division for 2009 is less certain.

The Board is pleased to report that the Political Division continued to trade well through the important Conference season and remains on course to meet expectations for the full year - representing double digit growth in both EBITDA and revenue over 2007. 

Accordingly, the Directors now anticipate that the full year results, whilst representing a solid performance in testing market conditions, will fall short of their previous expectations.

The cost reduction exercise started throughout the Group in 2007 continues to drive additional cost savings, and in addition the Board has identified a number of new cost savings, mainly in Head Office, which, when fully implemented, will reduce annualised costs by up to £500k.

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