Revenue is expected to be below market expectations while loss before tax is expected to be higher than anticipated for the year ending 30 November 2022 at Derbyshire-based Light Science Technologies.
In a new trading update, the controlled environment agriculture (CEA) technology and contract electronics manufacturing (CEM) group said that while group revenue grew by approximately 10.5% in the year, this is around 13% below market expectations.
Group loss before tax meanwhile is anticipated to be approximately £850k higher than market expectations.
It comes as a result of a positive sales pipeline being negated by an elongation of the sales cycle, predominantly driven by input inflation experienced by growers which cannot currently be passed on to customers, leading to growers delaying capital expenditure.
Additionally, gross margins at the group’s CEM division have been diluted through the second half of the year, driven by significant price volatility in the global electronics component market.
The group was anticipating certain revenue streams materialising before 30 November 2022, which would have delivered financials in line with market forecasts for the period. However, these have been delayed. These revenue streams are now expected to materialise next year.
