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Fishing equipment retailer James Fisher & Sons scrapped its dividend and cut board member pay by a fifth to preserve cash and offset the potential impact of Covid-19 on the company.
The company decided that the final dividend for the year ended 31 December 2019 of 23.4 pence per share should be suspended until further notice. The move came as the company introduced a range of measures to preserve cash included the deferral of discretionary capital expenditure, a hiring freeze, and with effect from 1 April 2020, the salaries and fees of each board member would be reduced by 20%.
'Whilst group trading in the first two months of 2020 is ahead of prior year, the potential impact of Covid-19 is difficult to predict with any degree of certainty,' said James Fisher & Sons.