(Sharecast News) - Furniture retailer Made.com downgraded its full-year guidance on Monday as it said trading has been more challenging than expected at the start of the year, and announced the appointment of a new chief financial officer.
The company now expects gross sales for 2022 to be down 15%, for adjusted EBITDA to be -£35m and for revenue to decline 7%. In March, Made said it was expecting revenue of around £465m to £500m, up between 25% and 35% year-on-year, with a positive adjusted EBITDA of between £5m and £15m.
Although its performance has remained strong versus pre-pandemic levels, Made said trading has been volatile in recent months and more challenging than expected at the start of the year.
Third-party data suggests the online furniture and home market is down around 30-40% so far this year, it said. Versus the market, Made gross sales were down 10% in the first quarter compared to the same period a year ago, and up 64% versus 2019.
The group now expects the market to remain "highly challenging" for the rest of the year despite significantly easier comps for the second half.
"We remain very confident that Made will continue to outperform the online home and furniture market by at least 20 percentage points," it said.
"Spot freight rates continue to normalise in line with previous expectations, but lower sales mean the benefit will be reflected in gross margin later in 2022 than previously anticipated. We still expect 2022 exit rate gross margin to be around pre-pandemic levels and business shape will be set for the new operating environment. These actions will position the business to deliver positive adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow in 2023."
The company also said on Monday that it had appointed Patrick Lewis as its new CFO with effect from 27 June 2022, succeeding Adrian Evans. Made said Lewis has spent much of his career in leadership roles on the John Lewis Partnership board, most recently as CFO.
At 0850 BST, the shares were down 19% at 51.80p.
