Marks Electrical has reported full-year results showing a strong finish after a difficult opening, with management signalling confidence heading into the new financial year.
Underlying revenue for the 12 months to 31 March 2026 came in at £108.4m, down 7.5% on the prior year’s £117.2m as the group pulled back from marketplace selling to concentrate on its own website and internal telesales, sacrificing some top-line volume in favour of higher-quality, more controllable routes to market.
Although there was an element of controlled revenue decline, the market didn’t like the step back in sales, and shares fell 4% on Friday.
But it wasn’t all bad news. Margins held up well, with the underlying gross margin slipping only marginally to 24.0%, helped by mature brand relationships, while adjusted EBITDA of £2.5m landed in line with previous guidance.
And there are more positive signs in the second half, where a solid peak-trading period and decisive cost action drove a much-improved performance and delivered fixed-cost savings.
The balance sheet remains robust with net cash of £4.4m, though no final dividend is proposed as the board prioritises rebuilding trading profit.
Like peers such as AO World, Marks Electrical are keen to highlight its customer satisfaction ratings, with the returning customer rate rising to 30%, the Trustpilot score held at 4.8 across more than 110,000 reviews, and market share in major domestic appliances remaining steady at 2.6%.
The outlook was a little drab, but management still targets profitable growth and expects FY26’s cost discipline to feed through to FY27 EBITDA, but it has taken a more cautious view on sales growth and gross margin, given weak consumer confidence.