ProCook warns on full year performance amid cost of living crisis
Kitchenware brand ProCook has warned on its full year performance following the impact of “increasingly challenging” market conditions.
The company also said it is currently trading against exceptionally strong comparatives from the last year, when it benefited from pent-up demand following the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions and the reopening of retail stores.
It confirmed that its like-for-like sales have weakened across all channels since it issued a trading update on its performance for the fourth quarter ending 3 April. However, its revenues remain significantly higher than the comparative pre-Covid period in 2019.
ProCook said: “We continue to attract an encouraging number of new customers to the ProCook brand (89,000 in the first eight weeks of the year), reflecting the strength of our value-for-money, quality kitchenware offer, however, we are seeing an impact on average spend, conversion and repeat rates in light of the difficult consumer backdrop.”
Looking ahead, the company said it envisages that the kitchenware market will remain highly challenging for the remainder of its current financial year. As a result, it is expecting its full year revenue to be broadly in line with the previous year.
It also anticipates delivering an adjusted pre-tax profit for the period of between £4 million and £6 million.
Daniel O’Neill, chief executive and founder of ProCook, said: “There are clear and numerous pressures on consumers at present which are impacting discretionary spend across retail as a whole and kitchenware is no exception. Whilst we are still seeing lots of new customers discovering the ProCook brand and buying our products, it is clear that many are tightening their belts.
“This creates a difficult short-term trading environment, but does not distract us from our strategic priorities, as we work towards our mission of becoming the first choice for kitchenware.”
