// ProCook trading impacted by “increasingly challenging market conditions”
// The business said shoppers face “exceptional pressures on discretionary spend”
ProCook has revealed that its trading has been impacted by “increasingly challenging market conditions” as the retailer expects to fall behind previous forecasts.
The business said shoppers face “exceptional pressures on discretionary spend”.
However, ProCook is trading against “exceptionally strong comparatives” for the prior year.
READ MORE: ProCook pursues international expansion after bumper year
Although its like-for-like sales are “significantly higher” than pre-Covid levels, they have decreased across all channels year-on-year.
Against this backdrop ProCook said that its adjusted pre-tax profits would now fall between £4 million and £6 million in its current financial year, and that sales would be flat year-on-year.
Although 89,000 new customers had shopped with the business in the first eight weeks of its new financial year, its average spend, conversion and repeat purchase rates had been affected by the cost-of-living crisis.
Chief executive and founder Daniel O’Neill said: “There are clear and numerous pressures on consumers at present which are impacting discretionary spend across retail as a whole and kitchenware is no exception.
“Whilst we are still seeing lots of new customers discovering the ProCook brand and buying our products, it is clear that many are tightening their belts.
“This creates a difficult short-term trading environment, but does not distract us from our strategic priorities, as we work towards our mission of becoming the first choice for kitchenware.”
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