Tanfield Group, which owns 49% of Snorkel’s shares, reported that in the first six months of 2020, the manufacturer, now majority owned by the Ahern Family of Companies, saw sales of US$60.2m, down 46.4% compared to the same period in 2019. This resulted in a loss in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) of $6.2m in the six-month period.

The impact of the pandemic is evident, said Tanfield, when comparing the first and second quarter of 2020 with the corresponding quarters in 2019, which saw first quarter sales reduced by 15.9% to $43.4m, while second quarter sales reduced by 72.4% to $16.8m.

Due to the ongoing impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, Tanfield said its board expected that the remainder of 2020 will likely see ongoing reductions in sales compared to 2019. The Tanfield statement said, “As with many manufacturing businesses around the world, Snorkel has been significantly impacted by the global Covid-19 pandemic and many of its manufacturing locations have been closed for substantial periods in order to protect both the workforce as well as other stakeholders and to comply globally with a number of stay at home orders”.