Marks Electrical reduces profit guidance despite rise in sales

Marks Electrical has reduced its full-year profit guidance despite reporting a 22% increase in revenues to £88.9m for the nine months to December 23 and a 17.8% increase in revenues to £35.1m for the three months to December 23.

The news comes as “consumers remain highly price-conscious in a challenging trading environment”.

As a result, the company now expects full year revenue to be in the range of £115-118m with EBITDA in the range of £5-6m.

It also expects to see continued revenue growth in-line with its expectations, but “remains cautious on the speed of recovery in consumer buying patterns, which it expects to temporarily impact the recovery of its gross product margin”.

Mark Smithson, chief executive officer, said: “I continue to remain proud of the entire team at Marks Electrical for delivering a record peak trading period whilst gaining market share and maintaining our industry leading Trustpilot score of 4.8. This further demonstrates the strength and attractiveness of our market-leading customer offering and as brand awareness improves, we continue to see a strong repeat customer rate.

“Whilst I am personally frustrated about our expected margin progression in the second half, I remain confident about our long-term growth prospects and continue to be impressed by our ability to deliver market share gains profitably, against a fiercely competitive backdrop, whilst maintaining the highest levels of customer service standards in the industry.”

He added: “As we work tirelessly as a team to enhance our gross product margin in the remaining months of FY24 and into FY25, I also know from 37 years of trading that margin fluctuations are inevitable, they present us with an opportunity to learn, and will ultimately enable the group to deliver long-term value creation and position us as the UK’s leading premium electrical retailer.”