Seraphine FY revenue up, but pretax loss widens

Seraphine has reported a widening pretax loss in what was a “challenging year” for the British maternity and nursing brand.

In the 12 months to April 3, the company made a pretax loss of 36 million pounds compared to a loss of 3.8 million pounds a year earlier.

Meanwhile, its adjusted EBITDA fell to 2.6 million pounds from 6.2 million pounds, with the company citing “lower than expected product revenue growth, increased supply chain costs, increased marketing costs, and unexpected costs of entering new markets”.

Despite the loss, the group posted a 28.8 percent increase in product revenue to 44 million pounds.

Product revenue from its own digital platform was up 21.2 percent to 37 million pounds, revenue at its digital partners was up 83.2 percent to 4.4 million pounds, and revenue at its own retail stores jumped 111.5 percent to 2.6 million pounds.

Chief executive David Williams described “a challenging year, both externally for the consumer sector as a whole and internally for the group”.

He added: “Despite these challenges, we have delivered significant product revenue growth in the period, showing the strength of our strategy, brand and our customer proposition.

“Additionally, all non-financial KPIs have grown - customers are visiting our websites more and when they are, they are buying more; which illustrates the strength of Seraphine's unique products.”

Looking at current trading, Seraphine said it continued to face “significant inflation in marketing costs - having to spend 33 percent more to maintain prior year product revenue levels”.

The company has updated its guidance to revenue growth of between 0 to 15 percent. It also said it expects to remain profitable “with margin improving throughout the range”.