Hits top line revenue
Shriro has released its financial results for the six months to 30 June with revenue falling by 4.6% to $79.2 million following a change in distribution for Blanco in late 2015. Profit after tax climbed 29% to $3.1 million for the corresponding period a year earlier.
In a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX), Shriro CEO Mike Westrup said the Kitchen Appliances division generated revenue of $37.8 million for the six months to June 30, which was a decrease on the comparable period a year earlier of 13.7% due to the loss of Blanco revenue. But over the same period, like for like sales increased by 2.3% compared to the corresponding period a year prior.
“Whilst Blanco sinks and taps continued to perform strongly, the segment performance was adversely impacted by a change in the sales channel for Blanco kitchen appliances, which occurred in October 2015. Benefits from this channel switch are expected to be realised from the second half of the 2016 calendar year,” he said.
Heston Blumenthal with Shriro Holdings CEO Mike Westrup
“This was always going to be the toughest year with very few product releases and a lot of expenses. With the change in Blanco distribution, sales were a bit out of whack for the first six months. We expect it to even out in the last six months and consequently in 2017 and 2018 there will be a lot of new product releases. We are looking at new cooking appliances and in other areas of electrical and the non-electrical industry.”
When pressed on where the Blanco brand would be sold over the coming months, Westrup remained tight-lipped.
“I can’t comment on where Blanco is going. It was previously in The Good Guys and Harvey Norman, but this stopped around 12 months ago. Sales of Blanco have continued on the commercial side through channels such as Harvey Norman Commercial,” he said.
In its statement to the ASX, Westrup said that in contrast to the weak performance of Blanco, the Omega appliances product range performed well during the year, with sales up 8% on the comparable period in the first half of the 2015 calendar year.
“Sales of the recently released premium ‘Neil Perry by Omega’ range are encouraging, although it is early in this product’s life cycle. We are very happy with the month on month growth we are getting from that range. Although it is still early days, we have seen enough to be quite enthusiastic about where it is going to land,” he said.
Westrup also said that the heating season performed well.
“Heating was very good for us this year. The season happened early, then fell away and then came back late.”
Westrup said that despite “still running the ruler over a few projects”, but there were no acquisitions planned at this time.