Shares in Bath-headquartered eyewear firm Inspecs remained under pressure today after its warning last week of a fall in revenue and earnings.
The group, which designs and makes a wide range of spectacles, lenses and frames for worldwide sale, said its financial results for the first half of its current financial year would trail those of last year – triggering a 6% fall in its share price.
In a statement released ahead of its AGM, Inspecs added that this was “more in line with historic trading” and had been “due to elevated levels of ordering as retailers sought to secure their inventory positions post Covid”.
The group floated on the London Stock Exchange’s AIM market in February 2020, with its shares debuting at 193p.
Yesterday they were priced as low as 55.1p at one stage – only slightly higher than their price two years ago following a profit warning and the surprise departure of chairman Lord MacLaurin, the former Tesco boss and City grandee.
In early trading today the shares had recovered slightly to 61.2p.
Inspecs, which was launched in London in 1988 by former bond trader Robin Totterman and later relocated it to Bath, achieved record sales of £203.3m last year as it overcame supply chain issues and the boardroom shake-up the wake of Lord MacLaurin’s resignation.
Its AGM coincided with the launch Inspecs’ first in-house designed direct-to-consumer gaming eyewear range in London.
The group told shareholders at the AGM that it would benefit from extra capacity in its new factory in Vietnam in the second half of this year.
It also said it expected momentum to improve across its markets and to benefit from increased distribution and ongoing operational efficiencies. As a result, its guidance for the full year remained unchanged.
Inspecs manufactures a broad range of eyewear frames, low-vision aids and lenses, covering optical, sunglasses and safety. These are either made under licence for established brands, for retail customers or under its own proprietary brands.
The group has offices and subsidiaries in the UK, Germany, Portugal, Scandinavia, the US and China, including Hong Kong, Macau and Shenzhen, along with manufacturing facilities in Vietnam, China, the UK and Italy.
