Axminster prices

[nickds1]

Axminster are in a bit of a fix. According to their last visible filed accounts for the year ending 5th April 2023, they turned over about £44 million however they made a pre-tax loss of just over £2 million (including exceptional restructuring costs of c. £1.2 million) (£1.9 million profit in 2022) and a loss of £815,000 if you exclude exceptional costs. Their net current assets also fell by £2.6 million - almost halving the 2022 amount. The wage bill is a not inconsiderable £7.3 million or £8.3 million if you include NI & pension contributions. They also used 1.9 million kWh, up on 2022 by about 5% but produced a bit less CO2, presumably by being a bit more sensible about usage.

Massive swing in fortunes between FY 2022 & 2023. YE 2024 accounts should be available pretty soon.

It's tough out there.

 

[mwinfrance]

Which I'm guessing is why they have been shutting branches of late, past few years. Wages and leccy and rent ( unless they own( ed ) all their buildings ) hurt any business.The cold winds of "cheaper elsewhere" can make any business wither and eventually die. How many sq meters space ( retail, warehouse and office ) do they have compared with a few years ago ?. It would also explain why they are now offering to sell via their website into France ( and maybe other EU countries ) , cheaper ( France at least ) than equivalent offers on the same or very similar stuff from Bordet.

Back when I was in the UK in the 70s, I had ( amongst other business ) a retail outlet, with a few staff. I used to work on a mark-up of "my buy in price without VAT x 130 % and then add the VAT on.

Here almost everyone works on "buy in price without VAT x 200 % +VAT, because the NI and other taxes will take over 50% of what you make , and then you have company taxes , compulsory local taxes, compulsory taxes to the chamber of commerce, rents, leccy, insurances of various sorts, etc, etc plus your income tax etc to take another bite out of your gross profit.

So many small businesses go bust every month it is horrifying.

Only the big ones make the headlines, or the media.

ArcelorMittal will be in the bunch of the next big ones to go*, ( north and south of France , with a few smaller things in other parts ) with all the "knock on" that will bring.

*Due to Trump's steel tariffs..although they were already limping along ( no investment ) and the head office's eyes were already on moving it all to the USA, new "incentives" there, they spent the ones that they got from France, on what ?