Inspiration Healthcare warns over FY sales

The company said that since its last update in early October, it has continued to win substantial orders, in particular in the Ukraine and Thailand.

"However, the timing of receiving and shipping these larger orders has proved hard to predict due to the continuing economic uncertainty, which has affected all the markets in which we operate," it said.

Most recently, its distributor in China has pointed to the disruption caused by ongoing lockdowns, with anti-Covid measures impacting access to major customers.

"As a result of this continued uncertainty, not only in China but across all our markets, we now believe it is unlikely that our sales will significantly exceed those of the last financial year and we believe the knock-on impact on EBITDA in the second half means that it will be below that of the first half."

On a more positive note, Inspiration said the move to its new premises has been successfully completed and gives the group "a solid platform for long-term growth". Although it slightly increases the cost base, as predicted, from the next financial year onwards, the company expects to make ongoing savings of more than £0.5m as efficiencies across the business start to take effect.

Chief executive Neil Campbell said: "None of us could have predicted the events that have caused so much disruption in the world in recent times, nor the financial impact that these would have on our business.

"The factors influencing our partners around the world, particularly in the last couple of months, has meant that we have had to adjust our forecasts for growth as this has had the effect of delaying our progress and growth by a year, but we remain confident in the prospects for Inspiration Healthcare and our ambitions are undiminished."

At 0810 GMT, the shares were down 35% at 55.30p.