Town Hall Meeting for 15th July

Our town hall meeting was live from the London Hub last Friday 15th July.
Hosted by Dennis, the guest speakers featured Chief Sustainability Officer Richard Llewellyn, Sustainability Manager Ajita Chamberlin, Sustainability Coordinator Olivia Grimes and Cris Cosgrave, Sustainable Innovation Programme Manager.

Dennis kickstarted the meeting with a branded theme, the power of positive thinking. And why? Dennis reflects on this by firstly linking this to external factors affecting most people globally today. These include the war in Ukraine, inflation, labour shortage, cancelled flights hey where he is currently re-reading Johan Norberg’s book Progress: 10 Reasons To Look Forward To The Future. Read an excerpt from this book by clicking here.

Dennis encourages us to all start thinking positively, to start the day thinking about a lovely song, a beautiful image, or simply to focus on good things. If you feel like everyday life is impacting you but keen to begin shifting how you feel, check out this online article providing many valuable tips to remain positive, even when the going gets tough. Click here to access the information.

Leading to the Business Update and using the principles of the power of positive thinking, Dennis updates us on business progress:

• Sales are down £7M v’s F1 forecast;
• EBIT is down £1.3M v’s F1 forecast;
• Michael’s, our biggest customer in North America, is down sales by more than $5M;
• The Range, has introduced their own private acrylic label, seeing a significant downturn with our biggest customer in the UK;
• Jarir Bookstore in Saudi Arabia has stopped ordering stock until early next year. They are one of the top three customers for the International Commercial business.

As always, Dennis remains positive, highlighting that these lower-than-budget figures are all related to external factors and reminds us;

• Of our positive culture;
• Of the tremendous people who are the Colart family;
• Both Winsor & Newton and Liquitex are seeing double-digital growth v’s 2019 pre-pandemic figures;
• Sales are 10% less than sales out. This means our products are growing. It means “that sales will come”;
• Snazaroo is enjoying a fantastic re-birth;
• Lowestoft has seen significantly improved service levels;
• Minehead production output has increased;
• Service Levels overall are up and very strong;
• The issue with the manufacture of Liquitex fluid in Le Mans is resolved and back on track
• In a recent “scraping exercise” (where we review our products against our competitors) “, we’re beating them”;
• During P6, Amazon sales out are higher than pre-pandemic sales. It means “that sales will come”;
• The fine art channel is holding steady and doing better than the market and performing better than our competitors;
• All savings programmes have been initiated and activated, ensuring we remain positive in cash flow and profit.

Dennis wraps this up by stating that “we will weather the storm”.

Click below to watch the video where you can get the full update from Dennis. Plus, conversations with Richard and his team where they discussed B-Corp certification and sustainability across Colart, plus how our brands are working to create innovative sustainable solutions.