Yorkshire textile company sees revenues dip £3m in pandemic

A Yorkshire textile processing company has announced that it has seen revenues for the year drop by £3m following the impact of coronavirus.

Leeds Group has reported that group revenue for the continuing operations in the year was £35.1m, dropping from £38.9m in 2019.

The company said that market conditions for both of its trading subsidiaries, Hemmers-Itex and KMR, have been “challenging” and that the consequences of the pandemic affected them “severely” in the last three months of the financial year.

Reduced sales figures for both subsidiaries did not produce enough contribution to cover the fixed overheads and therefore both Hemmers and KMR made losses for the year.

This resulted in the group’s operating loss from continuing activities rising from £1.1m in 2019 to £1.8m this year.

Jan Holmstrom, chair of the group, commented: “Even though the Covid-19 situation is still impacting the marketplace, sales levels for Hemmers and KMR in the first few months of the new financial year have been better than expected.

“However, there is a risk that there may be further local or country wide restrictions which would again affect trading.

“The directors believe that the group is now leaner and has a stronger management team with a revised customer focused strategy.

“The group’s global wholesale business and retail trading in Germany should now be in a better position to return to acceptable levels of profit in future years, provided there is a return to normal trading conditions in the near future.

“On behalf of shareholders, I want to thank the management and staff of Hemmers and KMR who have all continued with their best efforts to work through difficult and challenging times.”