FILOFAX and diary maker Charles Letts & Co has reported a loss of £2.1 million in its most recent financial year.
Accounts filed at Companies House show turnover of £24.5m in a 15 month period to April 30, 2014, compared to £21.9m in the 12 months to January 31, 2013.
The prior financial year had seen an underlying profit of £140,000 but £213,000 of exceptional items pushed it to a £73,000 pre-tax loss.
In the 15-month period the loss was close to £2m before £116,000 of exceptional costs, related to restructuring, were added on.
However according to the accounts the business, which has its main operations in Dalkeith, Midlothian, would have made an operating profit of £733,000 on relatively flat turnover of £21.85m if a pro forma year to the end of April 2014 had been used.
Writing in the accounts Gordon Presly, chief executive, said: "The major restructuring programme implemented since April 2013 has been effective in re-sizing and stabilising the business to a lower cost operating model. With the burden of senior term debt servicing now gone we have been able to focus 100 per cent on operational issues 100 per cent of the time.
"Streamlining of the business will continue as we respond to the volatility in our global markets.
"However we now have some financial breathing space back in the business which has enabled us to invest again in new product development and capital expenditure on equipment, IT and web related projects which are key to our future business development."
The accounts state that Charles Letts purchased the assets of sister company Filofax in March last year.
HSGP Investments had purchased the entire group, in which the parent company was called FLB Group, in April 2013.
The accounts for Charles Letts state that at the time of the deal HSGP also assumed all of the £15.7m loans which FLB owed to its bank.
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