Shares in Alternative Investment Market (Aim)-listed temporary hotel rooms provider Snoozebox (ZZZ) slumped another 12 per cent to 47p after revealing losses had tripled to £4.4m and that chief executive Robert Breare has stepped down with "immediate effect" with finance director Chris Upton also set to leave by 31 May, over issues we covered in the Chronic Investor blog (Nightmare for Snoozebox Investors).
Lorcan O'Murchu will replace Mr Upton as finance director, having previously been finance chief of UK Specialist Hospitals, which provides healthcare services to NHS and private patients. Gary Thompson, a former army logistics officer, has been promoted to chief operating officer. Mr Breare will take a more sales focused role within the business.
Snoozebox chairman David Morrison said in a statement that it was "disappointing" to be reporting "less than satisfactory" results, adding that there was "undoubted momentum in the business and a strong pipeline for the current year." Snoozebox, which creates hotel rooms from shipping containers, is planning to increase capacity at events such as the Edinburgh festival from 48 to 160 this year, and plans to provide 160 rooms to the golf Open for the first time. Snoozebox announced last week it had been awarded a £3.8m contract to provide accommodation for 1,350 personnel at the G8 Summit taking place in Northern Ireland in June.
Snoozebox released a profit warning earlier in the week after revealing accounting issues around the provision of 320 rooms for G4S security staff at Hainault during last summer's Olympic Games. It said results would see revenue of around £3.78m, materially lower than forecasts of £5m after a revision to its accounting rules. Management has said some of the shortfall may be made up this year. Shares are down over a third from March highs of 75p, Snoozebox floated in May 2012 at 40p per share.
