Safestyle to return to work by the end of May

The Bradford-based firm said it will have all the necessary health and safety measures in place by then. The move follows the Government’s update to guidelines this week amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The firm said the plan is based on a phased and measured return to work and involves a number of temporary changes to practices to ensure staff and customer safety. The group said it is confident in its ability to operate in line with the Covid-19 safety guidelines.

Staff working in the company’s various support functions will also begin to return to work in line with this phased restart, although the company will ensure that people who are able to work from home continue to do so.

Safestyle's chairman Alan Lovell will tell shareholders at today's AGM: "Clearly there are high levels of uncertainty around consumer demand for the year ahead, the challenges of selling in home and the competitive environment.

"The company will seek to adjust to this operating context rapidly. It will continue to utilise the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme as required through the summer, whilst maintaining tight controls on the group’s cost base and closely monitoring available liquidity."

Since the end of March, all of the company’s locations have remained temporarily closed and all survey and installation activities were paused.

Throughout this lockdown period, the company furloughed the majority of its workforce and benefitted from the Government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme in covering the majority of the ongoing staff costs associated with retaining its workforce.

The firm has kept a limited number of employees working to maintain telephone contact with customers and provide them with emergency service support alongside regular updates on the status of their orders.

Immediately following the temporary cessation of operations in March, the company successfully raised £8.5m in a share placing and obtained a covenant waiver on its existing borrowing facilities for the duration of the lockdown period from its lenders.

Together with the initiatives undertaken to preserve cash, these actions have strengthened the group’s balance sheet and resulted in available liquidity in excess of £12m.

The group said it remains impossible to provide financial guidance for the year to December 31 in the current environment before it gets certainty of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on consumer confidence and any negative impact on established ways of working.

Mr Lovell will tell investors: "Whilst the short-term outlook remains uncertain, the board has considered various scenarios as part of plans to re-start operations safely in response to customer demand and continues to target progress made in the group's turnaround plan.

"Moreover, the business is more resilient with a leaner fixed cost base and considerable liquidity to underpin its ability to navigate through the challenges presented by the pandemic and return to its plans as quickly as possible."

Analyst Charlie Campbell at Liberum said: "We believe that management has a compelling strategy to deliver renewed market share gains, not least as the competition is now in a weak financial position.

"We see short term upside to our 40p target price (unchanged), but note that the group should be capable of generating recovered earnings of 9p in the medium term, suggesting very significant upside if this can be delivered."