By Scott Wright
PARSLEY Box, the Scottish ready-meal company, lost more than one-third of its stock market value yesterday after a fall in order numbers and values led it to downgrade its revenue forecasts. Shares in the company, which targets the Baby Boomer generation, sunk to a record low after it said it now expects to generate full-year revenue of £19 million, down from £22.5m forecast in June.
Parsley Box, which is chaired by Chris van der Kuyl, reported first-half revenue of £9.6m, down from £14m last year. That came as revenue from new customers dipped to £0.9m from £3m, and from repeat customers to £8.7m from £11m. However, it cut underlying losses by 42% to £2.1m. Total orders in the first half came in at 212,000, down from 385,000. But the average order value increased by 25% to £45, in line with target, as order fulfilment efficiencies offset cost inflation in logistics and the supply chain. This helped to improve its gross margin to 32% from 30%. However, the firm said the cost of acquiring new customers is still increasing. Shares closed down 36.2% at 11.17p.
The company, which ran newspaper promotions during Wimbledon and the Queen’s Jubilee, will launch a new television campaign in September as part of its customer acquisition strategy. But it said would reduce other activities from the fourth quarter should the high cost of acquisition continue.
Chief executive Kevin Dorren said: “We have continued our product innovation at pace to increase the opportunities for customers to order from us, and remain focused on balancing investment in customer acquisition and maintaining cash reserves, whilst we navigate the challenging consumer environment.
"We recently brought down the price of a range of customer favourite meals to £2.95 to help alleviate the rising cost of living, and have frozen all prices until September. We remain well funded and continue to deliver quality, good value, and nutritious food.”
Parsley Box said its expectations for full-year underlying losses were broadly unchanged at £4.1m.
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