This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) 596/2014 as it forms part of UK domestic law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 ("MAR"), and is disclosed in accordance with the Company's obligations under Article 17 of MAR. Upon the publication of this announcement via the Regulatory Information Service, this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.
28 February 2023
AO WORLD PLC
Trading update and Increased Profit Guidance
AO World plc ("the Company" or "AO"), a leading online electrical retailer, today issues the following trading update, increasing our profit guidance for the year to March 2023.
Consistent with the themes set out in the trading statement issued on 10 January, we continue to see traction from the initiatives taken by the business to reduce costs and improve margins.
Margin improvement initiatives coupled with a continued resilient underlying customer base has driven higher retail gross margins than previously expected and we anticipate that this will continue for the remaining five weeks of the financial year. The steps we have taken to simplify the business and become more efficient have outperformed expectations and been delivered quicker than expected. Mobile RPI price increases have also been slightly higher than our prudent forecast.
Accordingly, the Board now expects Adjusted EBITDA1 to be in a range of £37.5m to £45m for the full year, an increase to the previous guidance2 that we gave in January 2023.
AO expects to publish a full year post close trading statement on 14 April 2023.
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| AO World plc
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| John Roberts, Founder and Chief Executive | | |||||||||
| Mark Higgins, Group CFO
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| Rob Greening Nick Hayns | | | | | | | | |||
1 Adjusted EBITDA is defined as profit/(loss) before tax, depreciation, amortisation, net finance costs, profit/loss on disposal of fixed assets, and other adjusting items (including restructuring costs).
2 In our trading update announcement on 10 January 2023 we guided to a range of £30m to £40m.
| About AO AO World plc, headquartered in Bolton and a constituent of the FTSE Small Cap index, is a leading online electricals retailer in the UK. Our strategy is to create value by offering our customers brilliant customer service and making AO the destination for everything they need, in the simplest and easiest way, when buying electricals, including major and small domestic appliances and a growing range of mobile phones, AV, consumer electricals and laptops.
We deliver for our customers via our in-house logistics business and carefully selected third parties. We also provide ancillary services such as the installation of new products and recycling of old products as well as offering product protection plans and customer finance. AO Business serves the B2B market in the UK, providing electricals and installation services at scale. Our Recycling capability, a WEEE processing facility, allows AO to ensure its customers' electronic waste is dealt with responsibly.
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Cautionary statement This announcement contains certain forward-looking statements (including beliefs or opinions) with respect to the operations, performance and financial condition of the Group. These statements are made in good faith and are based on current expectations or beliefs, as well as assumptions about future events. By their nature, future events and circumstances can cause results and developments to differ materially from those anticipated. Except as is required by the Listing Rules, Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules and applicable laws, no undertaking is given to update the forward-looking statements contained in this document, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Nothing in this document should be construed as a profit forecast or an invitation to deal in the securities of the Company. This announcement has been prepared for the Group as a whole and therefore gives greater emphasis to those matters which are significant to AO World plc and its subsidiary undertakings when viewed as a whole. |
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