Sales have dropped at Wilko, while the firm has slipped to a pre-tax loss in its latest financial year, ended January 29 2022, as the pandemic continued to hit the Nottinghamshire retailer. Sales reduced by £42m to £1.2bn, while profit before tax declined by £44.2m from £5.5m in the year prior to a loss of £38.7m. Wilko noted that is has faced continued challenges to its trading environment, with the COVID-19 pandemic leading to a national lockdown in the first quarter of the financial year and the emergence of the Omicron variant during the final quarter of the year, meaning footfall was significantly impacted during its peak trading period. The company says it was also hit by the severe and widespread disruption to supply chains globally, and resource shortages at its distribution centres. With a difficult backdrop, Wilko’s directors are said to be satisfied with the results. The annual results follow reports in The Times that the business is in talks to land an emergency loan as cost pressures grow for retailers as we approach Christmas, and Wilko agreeing a sale and leaseback deal with DHL at its Nottinghamshire distribution centre to unlock £48 million.

Business start-ups in the East Midlands have hit a high in October with a month-on-month rise of 10.9%, one of the UK’s highest regional increases, according to the Midlands branch of national insolvency and restructuring body R3. R3’s findings, which are based on data from business intelligence provider Creditsafe, reveal that new business registrations rose to 2,251 in October from the previous month’s figure of 2,030, a percentage increase exceeded only by Yorkshire & Humberside, the North East and Wales. The East Midlands’ October start-ups figure is also a 2.4% increase on the number of new companies registered in the region six months previously. Despite this growth in entrepreneurship, R3’s analysis indicates that late payments could pose a sizeable challenge to new companies, as well as to their longer-established counterparts. The data shows that, in October, the East Midlands had 27,077 companies with customer payments past their due date, a figure which has risen steadily in recent months. R3 Midlands Chair Eddie Williams, a partner at PwC in the East Midlands, said: “These statistics highlight the effect that over two years of economic turbulence have had – and continue to have – on our local businesses. “The growth in start-ups is most definitely a positive – a trend which is likely to have been driven by those who were furloughed or made redundant during the pandemic and who have decided to venture out on their own. This is an encouraging sign of entrepreneurialism and enterprise resilience in our region. “However, this growth is being severely threatened by current market conditions, which include a perfect storm of spiralling inflation, contracting economies, steep rises in fuel, energy and wage costs, and dwindling consumer confidence. Late payments will only exacerbate these challenges facing local businesses. “Our advice to any director who is worried about the viability of their business, start-up or otherwise, is to seek professional help and to do it as soon as possible. The sooner support is sought, the more opportunities there may be to assure a company’s survival and future success.”

Wattbike, the Nottingham-based elite exercise equipment manufacturer, has partnered with Praetura Commercial Finance to help fund its ambitious global expansion plans. The agreed £3.25m asset-based lending facility will help the team invest in its Hub App to further enhance the health and fitness of every Wattbiker, which works in tandem with its indoor exercise bikes, as well as target key global territories in the North America and Asia-Pacific regions. After launching in 2008, Wattbike has seen unprecedented growth, securing its position as the indoor exercise bike of choice for the world’s leading sports teams, athletes and coaches, British Cycling, Manchester City and cycling fanatics across the UK. As the only exercise bike endorsed by British Cycling, Wattbikes are now used by over 1,000 professional sports teams and 500 Olympic medal winners. The team has sold over 100,000 bikes, with over 240,000 sessions uploaded per month. Piper, the leading specialist investor in consumer branded businesses, invested £11.5m into Wattbike in September 2020. Wattbike was born out of elite sport, transcending into the commercial fitness industry and consumer fitness sector. Since then, the business has won significant commercial contracts in the health & wellbeing, education, professional sport, military & uniformed services, medical and hospitality sectors with contracts signed with David Lloyd, the England football team, Hilton Hotels and the British Army. Most recently, Wattbike has become an official supplier to New Zealand’s rugby squad, the All Blacks. The pandemic created significant challenges for Wattbike. From severe surges in demand to skyrocketing supply costs, the team navigated a series of unprecedented changes. Wattbike’s business model has been stress tested and has emerged more adaptable, entrepreneurial and resilient. As a breakout UK entrepreneurial success story, the Wattbike team has been on an unexpected journey of rapid growth. The team now only chooses partners and suppliers who understand the vision and remain flexible to the business’s needs in an increasingly unpredictable environment. Richard Baker, CEO at Wattbike, said: “We are fiercely proud to have built a business that is chosen by the world’s best teams and athletes. This has enabled us to continue to scale our brand, product and services into the consumer and commercial markets, domestically and internationally. “We are excited about the future as we progress through the next phase of our plans: building a more accessible brand, products and digital services with the mission of improving the health and performance of every Wattbiker, with the continued support of Piper and new funding from Praetura Commercial Finance. “Praetura’s ability to get in and understand the business quickly, see the opportunity and create ways to unlock finance options for Wattbike made them a natural partner.” Stuart Bates, commercial director of Praetura Commercial Finance, said: “Helping a best-in-class business like Wattbike achieve its goals is why we started Praetura. Spending time with Rich and the team, hearing how they’ve built one of the most noteworthy brands in elite sport and helping design a funding solution that supercharged their strategy for the future were a real privilege. “Needless to say, the Praetura team includes a few cycling fanatics who are evangelical about Wattbike’s products. You can see the passion Wattbike’s team put into its bikes and the fitness community that develops around them. We look forward to working with the team again in future and wish them every success.” The deal was managed by Henry Wheeler at Praetura and introduced by Adam Simpson from Silkstone Consultants.

OakNorth Bank has provided a loan to Cottons, the independent chartered accountants & business advisors. The capital from OakNorth Bank will refinance existing acquisition debt, support the firm’s acquisition programme of accountancy practices – including Roberts & Co. and J R Watson & Co –  and provide a tailored facility for future unidentified acquisitions. Headquartered in Northampton, Cottons is a fully regulated member firm of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales, providing c.10,000 customers, including freelancers, contractors, SMEs, and large corporations, with expert business, taxation and accounting guidance. Established in 1983, the firm has scaled to over 100 employees across offices in its Northampton HQ, as well as Rugby, Daventry, Milton Keynes, Market Harborough, and London. Will Smart, managing partner of Cottons Group, said: “At Cottons, our people and our personalised approach are our greatest assets and we’re committed to offering our clients reliable, first-class service at every step in their business journey. “This bespoke debt facility from OakNorth will help propel Cottons forward, as we look to continue scaling the business further through acquisitions, helping us to build upon our well-established branch network and strong long-term relationships with clients. “OakNorth’s ability to create a truly bespoke package that provided all our funding under one facility has been invaluable.” Dale Cowdell, associate director of debt finance at OakNorth Bank, added: “Cottons is a well-established and well-respected, full-service accountancy practice, that has a strong focus on quality and a personalised approach. As the firm prepares for the next chapter of its growth journey, we’re delighted to play a part in its push forward for further acquisitions. “With the accounting and auditing market set for significant growth over the next five years, driven by factors such as increasing M&A activity, Cottons is in a perfect position to capitalise on this opportunity. We look forward to supporting them again in the future.”

Topps Tiles, the Leicester-based tile specialist, has posted its second consecutive record year of revenue. In unaudited annual financial results for the 52 weeks ended 1 October 2022, the firm hailed strong recovery from the Covid period, trading ahead of 2019 levels. Group revenue was up 8.4% to £247.2 million, adjusted profit before tax grew 4% to £15.6 million, while statutory pre-tax profits dipped 22.1% to £10.9 million.

Rob Parker, Chief Executive, said: “We are pleased to have delivered a year of strong strategic progress, with record sales for a second year running and excellent delivery against our ‘1 in 5 by 2025’ market share goal. We are continuing to develop and diversify the group and further strengthening our position as the UK’s leading tile specialist.

“Within our Topps Tiles brand, where the majority of sales are being made to professional tradespeople, our focus on fewer more profitable stores and category extensions has driven sales per store up 25% since 2019. Parkside, our commercial brand, has delivered a record year of sales and now moved into profit. Pro Tiler Tools and Tile Warehouse have added a new, high growth, online-only sales channel to the group, leveraging our core strengths in product, service and scale.

“Looking forwards, we are mindful of the macroeconomic headwinds which will impact both UK consumers and businesses in the year ahead. Against this backdrop, our trading performance in the early weeks of the new financial year has been robust, with like-for-like sales growth in Topps Tiles over the first eight weeks of 3.4%.

“Our market share growth during 2022, combined with our clear strategy and strong balance sheet, give us confidence that we will continue to deliver growth and create value over the medium term.”