Filta Group Holdings plc (LON:FLTA) Chief Executive Officer Jason Sayers caught up with DirectorsTalk for an exclusive interview to discuss first half results, the pace in which the UK, US and Germany came back and how he feels about things going forward.
Filta Group Holdings is a market leading commercial kitchen services business servicing restaurants, supermarkets, stadiums, healthcare, hotels, and amusement parks. Trusted by many global brands, they specialise in fryer management and grease drain management, servicing businesses that regularly require maintenance. Today, the company announced its interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2021 and joining me to discuss those results is CEO Jason Sayers.
Q1: It looks like you’ve had a great set of results for the first half. Just breaking down, how did Q1 look compared to Q2?
A1: Q1 was severe lockdowns in the UK still so revenues were held back a little bit in Q1 but Q2 we had almost a 30% increase in revenue over Q1 so the momentum really was strong coming into the end of the half and we’ve continued that into Q3 as well.
So, momentum is with us.
Q2: Now, you’re in the UK, Germany, and the US, have they all come back at the same pace?
A2: No, so taking the US first, that came back really quickly, like a train earlier in the year, it took us all a bit by surprise. We’re now back to revenues stronger than we’ve ever had before, network revenues and franchisees revenues and, only just now, end of September, are we getting the bigger customers coming back. So, some of the universities and the stadiums are now layering on top of the record revenues we have coming into this.
We put on around 1,000 new customers during COVID so now we’re servicing those plus the big stuff is coming back so it’s exciting.
In the US, the biggest barrier to our growth right now is getting enough staff on, our franchisees getting technicians out there, and we’ve actually put on two full-time recruiters to help our franchisees hire new technicians. I think a month ago, we were hiring 100, we’re now down to 45 so we’re knocking through it but it’s busy keeping up with the pace of the work in the States is tricky.
The UK, as people on this call are more aware, severe lockdowns really until March/April time, going into May so that was behind the US coming back but we’re seeing it in Q3 stream ahead as well. So, it was a bit slower but it’s coming back nicely.
Germany is a much smaller market for us, less than 2% of our revenue but really the lockdowns have been more severe there and slower coming back but I’m pleased to say that last month was the first month of seeing all of franchisees out there gaining a lot of their customers back. So, things are looking good out there too.
The UK, Germany and the US have come back at different paces to us.
Q3: It certainly sounds like Filta Group is in a good position, the first half was positive. How do you feel about things going forward?
A3: Again, momentum from Q1 to Q2 was good, we are seeing similar momentum coming into Q3, an expansion on Q2 , things are coming back.
We did well managing cash during COVID, we’ve come out of this now net cash positive in the business so pleased with that and we’re gaining more cash in Q3, it’s accelerating.
So, things are accelerating nicely for the second half and looking forward to performing in the second half.
