Quiz has released its full-year results for the period to the end of March with the company confirming much of what it said in its late June update but adding that strategic initiatives are under way to improve its performance and profitability while managing its cash position.

The final, audited results show revenue for the year falling 10.6% to £82 million with gross profit down 9.7% at £51 million. The loss before tax was £5.2 million before a £1.5 million non-recurring impairment charge (after a £2.3 million profit a year earlier), and EBITDA fell to £0.9 million from £6.2 million.

On the plus side, higher levels of full-price sales resulted in the gross margin increasing to 62.2% from 61.6%.

It had total liquidity headroom at 31 March of £2 million, being a cash balance of £0.3 million and £1.7 million of unused bank facilities. That’s down from £8.3 million a year ago.

But discussions have started with Tarak Ramzan, the founder and largest shareholder, with regards to the provision of a £1 million loan facility to provide additional liquidity headroom for working capital purposes.

As for its operations, the company said a change of its largest International partner “will drive a positive uplift in trading going forward after revenues in the period were negatively impacted by the transition”.

And four new stores have been opened with two relocated to larger shops in its new design format. There were two UK store closures in the latest year and one Republic of Ireland (ROI) closure during the period. It now has 64 UK stores four in ROI.

And after the appointment of Sheraz Ramzan as CEO in late March, “a turnaround strategy to return the business to profitable growth is being implemented”.

To support this, it’s “reviewing and having greater clarity on Quiz’s target customer and updating the brand identity to re-align our marketing and buying and merchandising activities”.

The buying and merchandising activities are being restructured “to provide a clearer focus on developing product and pricing strategies, which includes the recruitment of a new head of merchandising as well as increasing the resource available to our buying team”.

It’s also taking a “fresh marketing approach to elevate the brand, including creating a more aspirational image through refreshed social media activity”. 

And it’s expanding the distribution channels available to the business including the relaunch of Quiz on Debenhams.com and associated websites.

Regarding current trading, it said that revenues in the four months to 31 July fell 11% on the prior year to £27.3 million.

But in recent weeks “there are ‘green shoots’ from a number of the initiatives outlined above to improve business performance with an improvement across in-store and online revenues relative to previous months”.

Yet it still expects H2 trading “to remain challenging, albeit the group has softer comparatives in the second half of the financial year. There remains uncertainty with regards to consumer demand and inflationary cost pressures, but the board are targeting an improvement in financial performance through increasing revenues and continued cost controls”.