Bradford-based window and door company Safestyle UK on Thursday announced its first return to full year profitability since 2017 as its 2021 revenue increased to £143.3 million, growth of 26.6% compared to Covid-impacted 2020 and 13.5% compared to 2019.
“The group’s underlying profit before taxation of £7.6m represents the first return to full year profitability since 2017 and a £16.4m turnaround versus 2018,” said Safestyle UK.
Safestyle UK was hit by a cyber attack, originating from Russia, at the end of January 2022.
“Business continuity actions, as well as IT investments in the last two years, mitigated the impact, although it caused a level of operational disruption that took some weeks to fully recover from,” said the company.
“We have now recovered our systems and processes and the group is trading in line with original plans.”
In its outlook, Safestyle UK said that despite strong progress being made by the group in 2021 to overcome labour shortages, it anticipates “resource shortages in critical skilled labour pools will continue in the short to medium term.”
It said cost pressures have escalated in the first quarter across raw materials, fuel and labour.
The firm said demand has remained robust in the first quarter and that “despite the short-term impact of the cyber attack on the financial performance of the business, the group has a strong balance sheet and the board therefore intends to continue to invest behind its strategic initiatives.”
The Bradford company said it expects performance for 2022 “to be in line with current expectations with annualised H2 financial performance representing further growth on the good profit delivery of 2021.”
Safestyle UK CEO Mike Gallacher said: “Despite the continued uncertainty caused by the pandemic as well as the widely-documented supply chain and inflationary pressures, I am delighted we have been able to deliver our best financial performance since 2017 and make significant progress against our stated strategic objectives.
“The group’s underlying profit before tax for the year represents a £16.4m turnaround from 2018’s underlying losses as we continued to improve margins and deliver growth.
“The strong performance of the business in 2021 made the cyber attack in January 2022 even more frustrating, however our previous investments in upgrading IT systems proved invaluable in helping to mitigate the worst of its impacts.
“Looking ahead, the group will continue to proactively manage cost-inflation, however we expect consumer confidence to be impacted by the ongoing cost-of-living crisis.
“Pleasingly, our record-level order book will allow us to smooth the impact of any short term slowing of demand.
“Notwithstanding the factors above, the board and I remain positive on the outlook for 2022 as the business emerges transformed after four very challenging years and continues its return to our historically strong financial performance and growth.”