Sprue Aegis plc
(“Sprue” or the “Company” or the “Group”)
AGM statement
Sprue (AIM: SPRP), one of Europe's leading developers and suppliers of home safety products, is holding its Annual General Meeting today at which Graham Whitworth, Executive Chairman, will make the following statement:
“Our team has worked tirelessly over the last 18 months putting in place the building blocks for Sprue to become a truly independent, global business. At the start of 2018, our primary focus was to complete the integration with our new partners at Flex, Poland, to commence both producing and shipping Sprue products and to deliver our new FireAngel branded product range.
Despite the distraction caused by the receipt in late March 2018 of a 'Termination for Breach Notice' by BRK, which was fully settled in mid-May 2018, I am pleased to report that we successfully commenced production with Flex on time. Furthermore, as production ramps up, we will be transitioning all customers onto our new FireAngel range.
As highlighted in our 2017 report and accounts, we anticipated that there would be some short term impact as a result of the final agreed settlement with BRK referred to above and the transition of manufacturing to Flex. However, I do expect the Company's operating results to improve significantly in 2019 and beyond, driven by greater efficiencies and margin control, alongside our ambition to expand our geographic footprint and broaden our product base.
Looking at the current year, our new business pipeline remains robust, with new and exciting opportunities emerging, in particular, with our connected home platform.
We will be seeking shareholder approval at today's AGM to change the Company's name to Fire Angel Safety Technology Group plc. The change of name is closely aligned to our strategy to transition our business to a more technology-led connected home solution provider, to complement our stand alone core product range. We have also rationalised branding across our product suite in order to capitalise on our widely recognised FireAngel brand and to gain greater benefits of scale and leverage from our marketing budget. Changing the Company's name is therefore a natural conclusion to this process and will be reflected throughout the business.
We firmly believe that the Company is well-placed to capitalise on a number of exciting operational and strategic opportunities. We are now in full control of our manufacturing processes and see a strong pipeline of new business opportunities with our existing product set, along with increased interest and demand for connected home solutions.
Finally, and as announced earlier this month, I intend to step down as Executive Chairman and assume a non-executive role once a replacement non-executive Chairman has been appointed. The process to appoint a new non-executive Chairman has commenced and the Company will make an announcement in due course.”