Retailer AO World blames Brexit on loss
SHARES IN THE BOLTON-BASED COMPANY FELL 6.5 PER CENT TO 135.48P PER SHARE AS THE GROUP REVEALED ITS FINANCIALS
ELECTRICALS retailer AO World has issued a warning after a sharp slowdown in its UK business amid “challenging” trading since the Brexit vote as it saw annual losses widen.
The group fell deeper into the red with pre-tax losses of £7m for the year to March 31 against £6.7m the previous year and said it remained under-pressure in the UK so far in the new financial year.
AO World, which is set to be relegated from the FTSE 250 Index later this month after seeing shares plunge, said its UK growth rate would slow “significantly” in the first quarter.
Steve Caunce , chief executive of AO World, said: “Trading this year has been mixed, particularly for our UK business.”
“In the second half of the year, trading in the UK became more challenging as we began to feel the impacts of dampening consumer confidence following the UK’s vote to leave the EU, subsequent price inflation and a slow-down in the UK housing market,” he added.
The group said with no let up in the difficult UK conditions and tough comparatives from a year earlier, “we expect our UK first quarter growth rate to slow significantly year on year”.
AO World saw an improvement in group-wide operating losses on an underlying basis, narrowing by 46.2 per cent to £2.1m, thanks to a better first half performance from the UK.
The group has since been grappling with a jump in import costs following sterling’s slump, while rising inflation has put the squeeze on consumer spending.
Shares in the company have plunged 62 per cent since its listing in 2014, resulting in it being demoted from the second tier to the small cap index in the latest FTSE reshuffle, which takes effect on June 19. But despite this, UK website sales rose 14.5 per cent over the year as a whole and total UK revenues lifted 12.7 per cent to £629.7m. AO World said trading across Europe - where AO has been investing heavily in Germany and the Netherlands - had “started well” in the new financial year so far. Mr Caunce said the group’s focus on customer service had also helped the firm “gain market share in our categories and countries, notwithstanding the challenging trading environment in the UK”.
Trading this year has been mixed, particularly for our UK business Steve Caunce, chief executive, AO World