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Flooring retailer Victoria swung to a first-half loss after its sales were hurt by Covid-19 lockdowns.
Pre-tax losses for the six months through 3 October amounted to £2.9 million, compared to a profit of £5.5 million year-on-year. Revenue fell 2.2% to £305.5 million.
Underlying pre-tax profit roughly halved to £13.7 million, down from £27.5 million.
Victoria said its revenue had only fallen modestly due to a record post-lockdown performance.
It had also achieved a post-lockdown like-for-like margin improvement of 300 basis points, due to strong revenue and productivity gains.
'The underlying resilience of Victoria was proven during the challenging conditions of the 2021 financial year,' executive chairman Geoff Wilding said.
'The strong demand we are currently experiencing for our products is expected to continue due to consumers prioritising spending on their home environment, supported by some of the highest household savings rates on record.'
'As a result, meaningful organic growth is expected to continue into the New Year.'
'We were also delighted to be able to recently announce the £175 million preferred equity investment by Koch Equity Development, which brings the capital, resources, and deep industrial expertise of one of the largest privately held companies in the US to back Victoria's next phase of shareholder value creation.'
At 9:01am: (LON:VCP) Victoria PLC share price was 0p at 437.5p