Nobia Holdings º£½ÇÊÓƵ, the group behind kitchen manufacturer Magnet, is banking on its expansion into the premium market to help it return to profitability after suffering another significant loss and cutting hundreds of jobs.
The company has been restructuring in recent years, having not posted a pre-tax profit since 2019, as reported by .
However, this transformation plan has resulted in hundreds of job losses. Recently filed accounts for Magnet at Companies House provide an updated snapshot of the brand's efforts to get back into the black.
The business reported a pre-tax loss of £54.5m for 2023, following a loss of £68.9m in 2022. This latest pre-tax loss means that Magnet has accumulated a pre-tax loss of over £160m since its last pre-tax profit of £18.2m in 2019.
The accounts also reveal a decrease in turnover from £424.3m to £356.8m over the year, and a reduction in headcount from 2,671 to 2,292 employees.
Nobia Holdings º£½ÇÊÓƵ is a subsidiary of Swedish firm Nobia AB, a Nasdaq Stockholm-listed company that took control of Magnet in 2001 in a deal worth £123m.
Nobia Holdings º£½ÇÊÓƵ's results for 2024 are expected to be filed with Companies House by the end of September this year.
'A challenging economic environment'
In the latest financial statements, º£½ÇÊÓƵ executive vice president George Dymond commented: "The fiscal year 2023 continued to be a challenging economic environment with inflation, direct materials and energy prices still at relatively high levels."
"This impacted consumer confidence and consequently volumes."
"To ensure stability and improved profitability, the management team took action and in the first half of 2023 the decision was taken to exit some of our lower performing projects business contracts as well as a cost reduction programme which resulted in a number of redundancies across the º£½ÇÊÓƵ business."
"An announcement was also made regarding the closure of two factories with a net book value of £4.8m in the first half of 2023."
"The cost reduction program cost £3.4m and returned annual savings of £13.4m."
"A sale of the Dewsbury factory was also completed in September 2023 with a profit on disposal of £9.5m generated."
"Further activities have also been undertaken in 2024, including the announcement of the consolidation of manufacturing capability in our Halifax site into Darlington and the closure of 26 loss making stores."
Magnet eyes premium move to return to growth
Dymond added: "We remain confident in the efficiency of our strategic initiatives, which involve focussing on our core competencies and a targeted expansion via other distribution channels into the mass premium market."
"Our expectation is that this approach will lead to strong returns, profitable growth and ensure a consistent cash flow trajectory from next year and beyond."
The financial outlook for Magnet was detailed following a City AM report in October 2024, which highlighted that Wren Kitchens, a competitor, saw profits plummet to the lowest point since 2017 as sales dropped from an all-time high and the company cut 1,000 jobs.
West Retail Group, based in Yorkshire, recorded a pre-tax profit of £35.1m for 2023, a significant decrease from the previous year's £75.8m.
This figure was the lowest since the £17.7m reported in 2017 when the firm's turnover was £607.1m. In 2023, the group's turnover declined from £1.25bn to £991.6m.
