ProCook issues FY23 profit warning amid ‘challenging’ market

ProCook has issued a warning over its profits for the upcoming financial year, as its trading has been impacted by “increasingly challenging market conditions” since its Q4 update, with customers affected by the “exceptional” pressures on spending.

The kitchenware group noted that in the current quarter, it is also trading against “exceptionally” strong comparatives from the prior year, when it benefited from pent-up demand following the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions and the reopening of retail stores.

In addition, it said its like-for-like sales have weakened across all channels, in line with the wider kitchenware market. Nonetheless, its revenues remain “significantly higher” than the comparative pre-Covid period in 2019.

The group also said it has attracted an “encouraging” number of new customers to the ProCook brand, with 89,000 joining in the first eight weeks of the year). Despite this, it has noted an impact on average spend, conversion and repeat rates in light of the “difficult consumer backdrop”.

Considering the more recent trading conditions and the ongoing pressures on discretionary consumer spend, it assumes the kitchenware market will remain “highly challenging” for the remainder of FY23. 

As such, it now anticipates that revenue for FY23 will be broadly in line with that achieved in FY22 (£69.2m). It also expects to deliver an adjusted profit-before-tax of between £4-6m for FY23. 

Daniel O’Neill, CEO and founder, 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.”