Ultimate Products (LON:ULTP) reported lower revenue and profit for the year ended July 31, 2026, as it exited its third-party clearance operation and faced weaker U.K. branded sales, while management outlined efforts to rebuild its commercial organization and pursue longer-term growth from its proprietary brands.
Revenue declined 3% to £145 million from £150 million, while adjusted EBITDA fell 20% to just over £10 million. Adjusted profit before tax decreased 28% to £6.3 million and adjusted earnings per share fell 26%. The board proposed a full-year dividend of 2.7p per share, including a final dividend of 1.8p, in line with its policy of returning about half of post-tax profits to shareholders.
Chief Financial Officer Chris Dent said the company’s decision to close its clearance division was the principal driver of the revenue decline. Although clearance sales had relatively high margins, Dent said the activity was volatile, one-off in nature and could cannibalize the company’s own branded revenues while creating confusion for customers and consumers.
Focus shifts to proprietary brands
The company said proprietary-brand sales rose 5% to £128 million during the year, although they remained slightly below the level achieved in fiscal 2023 during the air-fryer boom. Overall branded sales increased 2%, supported by international growth, while third-party clearance and white-label sales fell 60%.
International branded sales to European discounters rose 64%, with Dent saying the growth came primarily from deeper relationships and expanded ranges with existing customers rather than new customer wins. He said Europe offered “a huge amount of runway,” but management’s near-term priority is to stabilize and return the U.K. business to growth.
U.K. sales declined 7%, an outcome Dent described as disappointing. He said the company has visibility through an order book that runs 12 to 18 months ahead and is beginning to see “green shoots” as the U.K. branded business starts to flatten out.
The group has reorganized its commercial operations around what it calls a “commercial triangle,” combining its brand, buying and sales functions. The aim is for brand teams to identify consumer needs and trends, buying teams to develop differentiated ranges, and sales teams to tailor propositions to retailers.
Dent said the company had also completed most of a broad rebranding effort across Salter, Beldray and Progress, as well as Russell Hobbs products sold under that brand’s guidelines. A first Beldray television campaign contributed to a 605% rise in sales of its all-in-one floor cleaner and a 64% increase in sales through beldray.com, according to the company.
Sales-force overhaul and new leadership
Ultimate Products incurred £800,000 in redundancy and recruitment costs as it substantially reshaped its sales team. Dent said the company initially expected to make modest adjustments, but ultimately found a more extensive transformation was required. Only two members of the sales organization in place in May 2025 remain, he said.
The company has introduced regular internal and external training, with most Fridays now dedicated to sales-team development. Training covers products and processes as well as negotiation, pricing and other selling skills.
Simon Harrison, who formally became chief executive officer one day before the presentation after serving as CEO designate for seven weeks, said the sales organization is also shifting its focus from selling products into retailers to driving sell-through with consumers. That includes discussions with customers on ranging, merchandising, promotional architecture and in-store or digital activation.
Harrison previously spent around 20 years at Coca-Cola Enterprises and subsequently served for five years as CEO of Princes Group. He said Salter and Beldray have substantial potential, but that his immediate priority is to build scale for the brands in the U.K. before pursuing broader international expansion.
Founders Andrew Gossage and Simon Showman are stepping back from executive roles and will remain non-executive directors, with Gossage taking a six-month hiatus first. Dent said the founders had helped build the company into a £150 million turnover business over 29 years.
Margins, systems and productivity initiatives
Gross margin declined to 22.6% from 23.2%, reflecting the loss of higher-margin clearance sales and changes in sales mix. Administrative expenses remained broadly flat for a fourth consecutive year, excluding the sales-team reorganization costs, as productivity improvements offset inflationary pressures.
The company is investing £2 million in an enterprise resource planning project after its existing system was end-of-lifed by the supplier. It has already introduced a product information management system and launched a new customer relationship management system during the presentation period. Dent said the ERP system is expected to go live in August 2027, ahead of the company’s peak trading months.
Automation initiatives included streamlining the customer-sample ordering process, saving the sales team 19.5 hours per week, and using artificial intelligence to translate instruction manuals. The latter initiative is expected to save about £84,000 annually, Dent said.
Net bank debt fell as working capital declined with lower trading. Year-end net debt to adjusted EBITDA was 0.9 times, while the 12-month rolling average was 1.4 times. Dent said the board would use the longer-term measure in considering any return to share buybacks.
Looking ahead, Ultimate Products said current trading remains in line with market expectations. Management expects fiscal 2027 trading to be relatively flat amid subdued consumer demand and geopolitical uncertainty, but said its commercial restructuring and operational investments provide a base for future growth.
About Ultimate Products (LON:ULTP)
Ultimate Products is the owner of leading homeware brands including Salter and Beldray. According to its market research, nearly 80% of UK households own at least one of the Group’s products.
The Group sells to over 300 retailers in over 30 countries – spanning discounters, supermarkets and general retailers, and ranging from large national and international multi-channel retailers to smaller retail chains. Its products are also available on salter.com and beldray.com, as well as major third-party online marketplaces.
