Update re Standfast & Barracks

RNS Number : 8885I

Walker Greenbank PLC

14 December 2015

 

For immediate release

14 December 2015

WALKER GREENBANK PLC

("Walker Greenbank" or "the Company")

Update re Standfast & Barracks

Walker Greenbank PLC (AIM: WGB), the luxury interior furnishings group whose brands include Sanderson, Morris & Co., Harlequin, Zoffany, Scion and Anthology, announces an update following the substantial flooding caused by Storm Desmond at Standfast & Barracks, the Company's fabric printing business in Lancaster.

Further to the Company's announcement on 7 December 2015 concerning the flooding, the Company confirms that it is working with its insurers and has appointed a project manager and specialist contractors to assist in returning the factory to full production as soon as possible. A recovery plan is being implemented in which production will be restored on a phased basis, beginning with digital printing. The Company is also progressing plans to outsource some fabric printing in the short term.

Electricity was reconnected to Standfast & Barracks' site on Thursday and it is still early in the assessment of the damage to printing machinery, stock and other business assets. Management's current best advice is that digital printing will be restored in the early part of 2016 and that other printing processes will resume sequentially with the intended result that the majority of printing capacity will be back on stream by the end of April 2016.

Disruption to the factory is expected to have an adverse effect on the Company's trading performance in the current financial year ending 31 January 2016, with pre-tax profits expected to be approximately 15 per cent lower than current market forecasts before exceptional items.  Trading in the following financial year will also be impacted until full printing capacity is restored.

The Company is fully covered for these losses by its insurance policy, which includes flood damage and business interruption, and expects to recover in full the profits shortfall incurred in both financial years.

A further announcement will be made in due course.

For further information:

Walker Greenbank PLC	[phone]
John Sach, Chief Executive
Mike Gant, Chief Financial Officer
Investec Bank plc	[phone]
Garry Levin / David Anderson - Nominated Adviser Henry Reast - Corporate Broking
Buchanan	[phone]
Mark Court / Helen Chan / Sophie Cowles

Notes for editors:

About Walker Greenbank

Walker Greenbank PLC is a luxury interior furnishings Group that designs, manufactures and markets wallpapers and fabrics together with a wide range of ancillary interior products. The Group's brand portfolio - comprising Sanderson, Morris & Co, Harlequin, Zoffany, Scion and Anthology - spans heritage and contemporary design and its products are sold in more than 85 countries worldwide. The Group derives significant licensing income from the use of its designs in lifestyle products such as bed linen, rugs and tableware.

The Group employs more than 600 people and has showrooms in London, New York, Paris, Amsterdam and Dubai along with partnership showrooms in Moscow and in Shenzhen, China. Its UK manufacturing base, which includes a wallpaper factory in Loughborough and a fabric printing factory in Lancaster, manufactures product both for the Group and for other wallpaper and fabric brands. Continued investment in manufacturing has allowed the Group to offer a wide range of printing techniques.

Walker Greenbank trades on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol WGB.

For further information please visit: www.walkergreenbank.com/

 

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