However profit on an EBITDA basis increased to £4.4 million, with the firm having made a loss of £2.7 million in the previous year. Excluding coronavirus support from the government, the underlying profit would have been £3.2 million, up from a loss of £4.8 million in the previous year.

During the 12 months to the end of October the impact of the pandemic continue to be considerable with all of its shops closed from early January up to the middle of April.

And when they reopened, revenue remained depressed due to low footfall, capacity limitations and muted demand for swimwear as few consumers went on summer holidays that year.

The company also said that trade is yet to return to pre-pandemic levels and even though the situation is normalising post-pandemic, the war in Ukraine “has created significant uncertainty and commodity price increases which impact consumer confidence and the cost of bought-in goods”.

It stressed that it was “severely impacted” by the pandemic and that operations this year continue to be “significantly” impacted with major cash flow pressures on the business.

However, management has extended its government-backed Covid loan (that was granted in 2020) through to 2023 and its level of borrowing is more than sufficient to meet cash flow requirements under a number of severe scenarios.

It’s unclear whether recent developments will be good enough to give it a major boost this year.

We’ve already seen reports from other businesses saying that swimwear demand is surging as many more people go on holiday, and that should help the company. However, supply chain issues and the current cost of living crisis could also mean that consumers rein-in their spending and that the goods they do want to buy aren’t always available at the time they want to buy them.