Safestyle plans to grow Yorkshire workforce after TV adverts starring David Seaman boost sales

Safestyle UK said its financial results over the first half of the financial year were affected by a sophisticated cyber-attack but it remained well-placed to deliver a sustainable long-term performance for its shareholders.

Safestyle, which is a replacement windows and doors company, saw its revenue rise by 7.2 per cent to £78.3m in the six months ended July 3 2022, despite the disruption caused by the attack.

In a statement, Safestyle, added: “As indicated previously our financial performance in H1 (the first half) was materially impacted by a cyber-attack at the end of January.

“This was predominantly caused by the delay to a planned pricing move designed to keep pace with inflationary cost push coming through. As a result, the business saw planned profits for H1 (the first half) reduced by c.£4.0m to a loss of £1.4m, albeit profitability recovered rapidly to planned levels in May and into June.”

Mike Gallacher, the chief executive, told The Yorkshire Post that the group had achieved good revenue growth since January and has the aspiration to grow its workforce in Bradford and Wombwell, South Yorkshire.

It is training a new generation of window fitters and has also put in place a temporary cost of living allowance for its staff. Mr Gallacher said the group was also “delighted” with the response to the new TV advertising campaign featuring Mr Seaman.

Commenting on the results, Mr Gallacher, said: “The business has delivered a good trading performance in the first half, achieving revenue growth of 7.2 per cent against an increasingly difficult economic backdrop.

"Despite the obvious financial impact of the cyber-attack, it is pleasing to see our net cash position remains strong, increasing to £13.0m at period end with the group’s order book also growing by 17.7 per cent over the first half, representing a closing position that was 17.6 per cent ahead of the prior period.

"This supports our ability to act on our long-standing intent to return to paying dividends to shareholders. In 2022 we emerged from a sustained period of turbulence and have now initiated a multi-year strategic investment programme.

"For 2022, this represents a £5m investment versus 2021 and it encompasses a full year return to TV advertising (£2.5m), the initiation of an important new business development project (£0.7m), the launch of the new Safestyle Academy which has prioritised training new window fitters (£0.8m), the roll out of Standard Operating Procedures across our depot network and a range of investments behind improving our customer experience and reducing our quality costs.

"This programme is designed to modernise the business, drive growth and build sustainable competitive advantage over the medium term

“Looking ahead, notwithstanding the challenging macro-economic conditions, we still expect the business to deliver both an (underlying) profitable full year and positive cashflow from operations.

"As a result of the challenges in Q3 (the third quarter) caused by the unusually hot weather and the board’s commitment to our strategic investment programme, we now expect full year underlying profit will be no lower than £1.0m.”