Uvenco Uk Regulatory News (UVEN)

4 September 2014

SNACKTIME PLC ("SnackTime", the "Group" or the "Company")

Trading Statement

Further to its announcement of 8 April 2014 and ahead of the announcement of its final results due to be released later this month, SnackTime provides the following update:

Year ended 31st March 2014: in its announcement of 8 April 2014, the Company stated that it expected to report Ebitda of approximately £1.3m. The Board now expects the Company's Ebitda to be in the region of £1.1m (FY13: £0.7m) up 60% on last year, on sales of £19m (FY13: £20.5m) as announced previously. The two key reasons for this slippage since the April announcement are a change in the balance of estimated stock and cash in machines, and a more prudent approach to doubtful debt provision in Snack in the Box.

Exceptional costs for the year ended 31 March 2014 are expected to be £7.2m. £6.6m of this represents non-cash items, relating to the write-down of intangibles across the Group. The main elements of this write down are £2.8m in Drinkmaster, reflecting reduced future profitability due to revised trading arrangements with William Hill, its largest customer; £2.8m relating to reduced performance and estate in the vending division; and £1.0m in Snack in the Box relating to the revaluation of the brand. Other exceptional costs of £600k are £150k higher than indicated by the Company in its April announcement due to an out of court settlement arising from a dispute with a franchisee dating back to 2011.

Drinkmaster Limited: disappointingly, since April, when the Company announced that its sale was progressing well, interest in acquiring Drinkmaster has waned mainly due to a major change in the relationship with its largest customer (as referred to above) which has reduced profitability materially. As the Board no longer has an acceptable offer for the business, it has decided that it is in the best interests of the Company and shareholders as a whole to suspend the sale process.

Re-financing: discussionsregarding the future financing of SnackTime are at an advanced stage with both The Co-operative Bank and the Group's new shareholder, Versatel Limited. Further announcements will be made as appropriate.

Current Trading: trading in the first 5 months of the current financial year has been behind the same period last year due mainly to disappointing cash takings through the Group's vending machines and the loss of business at Drinkmaster referred to above. However, franchise sales have been stronger than a year ago and the machine sales pipeline for the next few months is encouraging.

The Company will release its final results for the year ended 31 March 2014 at the end of September.

For further information: