Business
Q2 Trading Update
Marks Electrical Group announced a Q2 trading update for the full year to March 31, 2026, noting a continuation of lower revenue trends from Q1 due to challenging market conditions. The company faces cost headwinds from increased technology and ERP system costs, along with higher employee-related expenses. Despite efforts to control distribution costs and overheads, weaker trading in the first half of the year is expected to materially impact full-year profit guidance. Consequently, the adjusted EBITDA for FY26 is now expected to be approximately £1.7 million. The board has decided to delay any decision on the interim dividend and will reconsider it at the full-year results. The Group expects revenue in the second half to exceed that in H2-FY25. Disclaimer*
About this update from Marks Electrical Group Plc
[{"type":"text","content":"\n\nMarks Electrical Group plc\nQ2 Trading Update\nMarks Electrical Group plc (\"Marks Electrical\" or \"the Group\"), the online electrical retailer, today announces a Q2 trading update in respect of the full year to 31 March 2026 (\"the year\" or \"FY26\").\nAt the Full Year Results in June 2025, as part of the Group's pivot back to the premium segment of the market, we noted that we had experienced lower revenue during Q1-FY26. Disappointingly, this trend has continued into Q2-FY26 with both Major Domestic Appliances (\"MDA\") and Consumer Electronics (\"CE\") markets down year on year. We have also continued to see consumers remaining highly price conscious and scaling back on discretionary spending. This has impacted our average order values and in turn has resulted in higher relative delivery costs. \nCompounding the challenging market backdrop, we continue to face cost headwinds with increased technology and ongoing costs of our new ERP system along with higher employee related costs, impacting our distribution costs and overheads. We remain happy with the performance of the new ERP and the efficiencies it will drive as we return to growth. \nManagement remains focussed on delivering profitable market share growth and maintaining a disciplined approach to capital allocation. During H1-FY26 we have taken several measures to control our distribution costs and overheads but remain committed to maintaining our outstanding customer service levels and delivering our next day delivery and installation service to customers. We are also taking a number of steps to optimise business performance in our transport operations and allocation of marketing spend in order to best manage short-term market challenges.\nAs we look ahead to H2-FY26 and our peak trading period, we have made a strategic decision to invest into stock and expect revenue in the second half to exceed that in H2-FY25. Whilst we expect to see a return to revenue growth in H2-FY26, the weaker trading in H1-FY26, coupled with the reduced operating leverage, is expected to have a material impact on our full year profit guidance and we now expect adjusted EBITDA for FY26 to be approximately £1.7 million. In light of this performance, the Board has decided to delay any decision on the interim dividend at the time of the Interim Results and will re-consider ...