Iq-ai Ltd Regulatory News (IQAI)

13 April 2011

FLYING BRANDS LIMITED

Trading Update

Since our preliminary results announcement the business has continued to operate against the backdrop of an increasingly challenging consumer environment and increasing competition in its key markets. Overall Group orders for the period to 1 April 2011 of £10.8m (£2010: £10.7m) are marginally ahead of the same period last year. On a like for like basis, excluding those businesses we acquired in 2010, orders are 19.8% below last year.

Overall we believe that our strategy for transforming our business remains the right one but the continuing under-performance in the traditional flowers business and the recent decline in our bird food business means that profits for this year will be materially below market expectations. We will need to renegotiate the terms of our banking arrangements and we will be commencing discussions with our lenders very shortly.

Flowers & Gifts

The performance of our Flowers and Gifts Division over the important first quarter was materially below our expectations in what is currently our main direct-to-consumer (DTC) business. Orders to 1 April 2011 were £3.4m (2010: £2.3m); this includes first time contributions from Flowers Direct and Drake Algar. Like for like orders were 14.7% below last year. Our DTC businesses have been impacted, like many retailers, by weak consumer confidence. We have also experienced increasing competition from general retailers and more discounting from other specialist flower companies. Mothers Day trading in the three weeks prior to that event was particularly difficult with sales materially below our expectations.

The performance of the relay network is improving and we expect to conclude at least one large third party deal in the near future.

We are accelerating our plans to increase the emphasis on our relay network, on retail partnerships and corporate business, which we believe will transform the prospects for our flowers and gifts division.

In the short-term our new initiatives will not be enough to offset the decline in our traditional DTC business as we transition to this new business model.

Garden

Our Garden Division has had a mixed start to the year. Our bird food business has seen very challenging trading conditions with a marked increase in competition from low cost providers such as the supermarkets and garden centres and an increase in the number of entrants to the online market. Orders to 1 April at £0.8m are 33.5% down on last year. Profits for the year-to-date are materially below our expectations and we do not expect trading conditions to improve markedly in the short-term.

Gardening Direct orders at 1 April are £5.5m (2010:£6.4m).

The business had a challenging March with sales materially below expectations but April has started well. It remains to be seen whether we can claw back at least some of that under-performance. We reduced our marketing expenditure in off the page advertising during the first quarter to reflect the lower demand but are monitoring the market to make sure we take advantage of any perceived upturn. We do not now expect the financial performance of the business in the first half of the year to be better than last year.

We recently improved our site at www.gardencentreonline.co.uk and are planning a major re-launch of this brand when these improvements are completed and fully bedded down. Even prior to that re-launch sales are now regularly ahead of last year and we are pleased that this business is trading in line with our expectations in an increasingly challenging consumer environment. We expect www.gardencentreonline.co.uk to be an increasingly important part of our business in future.

Dealtastic

Our new Dealtastic site is still in its early stages. The functionality and features on this "deal of the day" site continue to improve from week to week and we are starting to see increased traffic to that site although we have not yet seen a significant increase in weekly sales.

For further information, please contact:

Flying Brands Limited 01245 228 300

Stephen Cook, Chief Executive

Anthony Gee, Finance Director

Smithfield Consultants 020 7360 4900John Kiely

Notes to editors

Jersey based Flying Brands Limited (LSE: FBDU) is a multi brand and multi channel home shopping specialist. Founded in 1981, it was admitted to the Official List of the London Stock Exchange in 1993. The Group operates the following divisions: 

·; Gifts (Flying Flowers, Flowers Direct and Drake Algar  making the company one of the UK'sleading florists)

·; Garden (Gardening Direct, one of the UK's largest mail order bedding plants and gardening products operations; Garden Bird Supplies, a leading provider of food and accessories for birds and other wildlife; Garden Centre Online, an internet retailer of garden hardware products)

·; Entertainment (Listen2, a mail order audio books, nostalgic music, DVD and video home shopping retailer)

·; Dealtastic (Deal a day website)

More information can be found at: www.flyingbrands.com