Trading Update

LifeSafe Holdings PLC

29 November 2023

 

For immediate release

29 November 2023

LifeSafe Holdings plc

('LifeSafe', the 'Group' or the 'Company')

Trading Update

LifeSafe (AIM:LIFS), a fire safety technology business with innovative fire extinguishing fluids and fire safety products, today provides a trading update for the eleven months to date (the 'period'). The Group has continued to generate considerable sales growth through its consumer channels in the period, with revenue of approximately £5.4 million, 62 per cent ahead of the same period last year, with one month of trading to go for the 2023 full year ('FY23').

This extraordinary sales growth has been achieved almost exclusively through the Group's digital consumer channels in the UK and US, which underlines the appeal of both the StaySafe 5-in-1 and StaySafe All-in-1. The growth highlights the traction the LifeSafe brand has achieved in the fire safety market since launching on Amazon UK and following the Group's IPO last year. This bodes well for the new products and fluids launching in 2024 into LifeSafe's wholesale and industrial markets, with strategic partners such as Wormald and QBE, as announced on 26 September 2023, in line with the Group's long-term strategic plan.

The exceptional sales growth has been however impacted by recent increases in the Group's costs of digital advertising and logistics as the Company has scaled at pace, particularly in the US. As a consequence, the Group has had to spend significantly more over recent months than previously expected. With the conclusion of the November 2023 sales period including Black Friday, the Group will not attain monthly EBITDA profitability in Q4 2023 as previously hoped. The Board guides that the FY23 LBITDA will be higher than current market expectations with underlying LBITDA¹ expected to be in the range of approximately £1.3 million to £1.5 million, with revenue expected to be in the range of approximately £5.7 million to £5.9 million. Revenue growth for the period has also been checked due to the unexpected underperformance of one small digital marketing partner in the US, compared to revenue through this relationship in 2022.

A programme of cost reduction has already been implemented, with a particular focus on overheads and supply chain costs, alongside changes to the marketing strategy. These actions, together with an improved margin mix of increased wholesale and industrial sales, which add to revenue without the level of marketing investment or logistics costs inherent in the direct-to-consumer channel, give the Board confidence that operating margins will be enhanced moving forward.

The Group is significantly ahead of its strategic plan in the development, testing and pipeline of its next generation of fluids aimed at the wholesale and industrial sectors, which the Board looks forward to announcing in due course.  These strategic goals are key drivers of long-term value creation for shareholders.

LifeSafe will provide a further trading update in January 2024 following the busy Christmas period.

¹ Underlying LBITDA represents loss for the period before finance expense, tax, depreciation and amortisation, and non-underlying items.

Dominic Berger, Chairman of LifeSafe, said:

"While we are disappointed with the impact of the unexpected increased costs within our digital sales channel, the Company continues to show strong sales growth this year, which is already 62 per cent ahead of 2022. This performance has come during a time where our focus was to establish our brand in the market and drive further top line growth in our digital channel, both of which we have delivered. The diversification and development of new fluid variants aimed at the higher margin industrial and wholesale sectors is ahead of plan, notably in the fight against the threat of fire events with lithium-ion batteries, and in our partnerships with Wormald and QBE.

"We continue to invest in research and development to meet the challenges of increased fire threats driven by climate change, technology, the environment and legislation and we look forward to being able to showcase our efforts in the near future. Our focus in the short term is to leverage our greater understanding of our digital channels and logistics, alongside the development of our industrial and wholesale channels."

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of the UK version of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 which is part of UK law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, as amended ('MAR').  Upon the publication of this announcement via a Regulatory Information Service, this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.

The person responsible for arranging the release of this announcement on behalf of the Company is Mike Stilwell, Chief Financial Officer of the Company.

For further enquiries:

LifeSafe Holdings plc	Via FTI Consulting
Dominic Berger, Chairman	[e-mail]
Neil Smith, Chief Executive Officer
Mike Stilwell, Chief Financial Officer
WH Ireland Limited (Nominated Adviser & Broker)	Tel: [phone]
Chris Fielding
Darshan Patel
Isaac Hooper
FTI Consulting (Financial Communications)	Tel: [phone]
Tom Hufton	[e-mail]
Harriet Jackson
Liam Gerrard

Notes to Editors

LifeSafe is a fire safety technology business that develops eco-friendly, novel and innovative fire extinguishing fluids and life-saving fire safety products.  LifeSafe has developed a market disrupting range of eco-friendly fire safety protection products; a new patent-pending Thermal Runaway Fluid to combat lithium battery fires by permanently extinguishing and preventing re-ignition, and the StaySafe All-in-1, a handheld eco-friendly and fully recyclable extinguisher which is verified to extinguish ten different types of fire and the number one selling fire extinguisher on Amazon UK.  LifeSafe is successfully creating new markets for the Group in fire safety through its innovative technologies, products, digital marketing and multi-channel sales; and is continuing to develop new fluid derivations for applications in various industrial market sectors.

LifeSafe was admitted to trading on AIM in July 2022 with the ticker LIFS.

For further information please visit: https://www.lifesafeholdingsplc.com.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lifesafe-technologies

Twitter: https://twitter.com/LifesafeT

 

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