Harrogate Spring Water reports £23m turnover but still makes a loss

Harrogate Spring Water saw sales return to almost pre-pandemic levels last year but still made a loss.

The company, which is owned by French multinational Danone, last week published its latest annual financial report covering the period from December 2020 to December 2021.

During this period, the company reported a turnover of £23m and a gross profit of £6.9m.

However, despite the improved sales figures for 2021, the company still made a loss of £1.3m after costs, expenses and tax.

Bouncing back

The healthy sales figures reflect how the bottled drinking water firm bounced back after its previous report, which covered March 2020 until December 2020, and saw revenue fall sharply.

The decline in 2020 was mainly due to hotels and restaurants that serve its water being closed due to covid.

Turnover in 2021 returned close to its pre-covid figures for 2019/20, when it recorded a turnover of £26.2m in the 12-month period ending March 31 2020.

Harrogate Spring Water declined to make a comment on the accounts.

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The Pinewoods expansion

Meanwhile, Harrogate Spring Water is preparing to submit a new planning application to expand its bottling plant in the Pinewoods.

The company was granted outline planning permission to expand to the west of its existing site in 2016, which meant the principle of development had been established but the details had not been agreed.

The reserved matters application provoked a major backlash due to the loss of trees at Rotary Wood. In January 2021, councillors on the planning committee voted overwhelmingly to reject it— against the wishes of council officers who had recommended approval.

The firm held a consultation on plans for its Rotary Wood site this summer and said it would now provide a further update “in the coming weeks”.

Ripon estate agent wins gold property award

Ripon estate agent wins gold award for the city 

Ripon-based estate agent, Davis & Lund, has won the British Property Award for Ripon.

The agency will now be shortlisted for a number of national awards set to be announced later this year.

This award focused on customer service levels which the British Property Awards judges found to be “outstanding” at Davis & Lund.

Paul Lund, director, said:

“I am delighted and exceptionally proud of my team for all their hard work helping us win this award. Not only are we market leading agents in Ripon, we have now been recognised with this award.”

Chris Davis, co-director added:

“We have also just found out this week that we have won that same award for our new branch in Thirsk, which just goes to show customer service is at the heart of everything we do.”

Chris Davis

Harrogate mobile app business targets growth after a difficult two years

Harrogate-based mobile app business, Mobile Tornado, has said that after an unpredictable two years is it is now focused on growth.

The listed company reported total revenue of £2.59m for the year ended 31 December 2021, up from £2.53m in 2020. Its pre-tax losses also reduced to £861,000 from £1.39m.

Jeremy Fenn, chairman of Mobile Tornado, said:

“It has been an extremely difficult two years for the business. The principal markets we operate in have been badly hit by the pandemic, dramatically constraining our business development activities.

“We have managed to maintain our revenue levels through this period, and executed significant improvements to our operational efficiency, such that we have reduced our operating expense from £3.16m in 2019 to £2.53m in 2021. This has allowed the business to trade through the period with modest losses, funded by a small working capital facility provided by our principal shareholder, and no further recourse to shareholders.”

Mr Fenn added that business had been “promising” in the first quarter of 2022.