Trading Update June 2026
8th June 2026
Samarkand Group Limited
("Samarkand", the "Company" or together with its subsidiaries the "Group")
Trading Update 12 Months Ending 31 March 2026 (FY26)
Samarkand Group Limited, (JPJ:SMK), is a consumer brand owner, specialist in natural health and
wellbeing. The Company provides a trading update for year ending 31 March 2026 (FY26) on an unaudited basis.
The Group has moved into full year profitability in FY26 on an EBITDA basis and has seen an encouraging start to FY27 trading. Following a period of restructuring and reconfiguration, the Group is now focused on the growth and development of its portfolio of owned natural health and wellbeing brands. These brands include Napiers the Herbalists, Zita West and Natures Greatest Secret.
Owned brands revenues in the UK grew in the range of 10% to 15% vs prior year. This growth, combined with improvements in gross margins, effective management of operating costs and the discontinuation of unprofitable activities, have enabled the Group to achieve positive full year adjusted EBITDA of c.£450k.
Brand Performance
• Napiers the Herbalists is our natural herbal apothecary brand, founded in Edinburgh in the 1860s. The brand grew revenues in the UK by c.12.5% in the year. This growth was driven by new product introductions targeting health and wellbeing trends, new customer acquisition and omnichannel expansion. New product launches expanded our natural herbal skin care offer and improved our range of Napiers brand vitamins and supplements.
• The original Napiers the Herbalists apothecary store has been in the same location in the old town of Edinburgh since the 1860s. The store grew revenue by c.35% vs prior year. In the same period online sales from Napiers eCommerce site grew by c.25% vs prior year.
• We launched a specialist platform, My Natural Life, to support our partnership with independent medical herbalists and other health and wellness practitioners. This platform enables practitioners to operate their practices more efficiently and effectively and makes it easier to work with and recommend our brands to their customers.
• Zita West is our specialist supplement product line for fertility and reproductive health. UK revenues for this brand grew c.15% over prior year. This is attributable to strong customer retention and new customer acquisition on a DTC basis. This was also driven by new product development at clinician recommended effective doses and supported by enhanced marketing and strong growth with select retail partners.
• Our Zita West brand offers customers fertility nutrition backed by clinical expertise. We support customers with extensive education and high touch customer care in support of their fertility goals. We expanded our team of specialist nutritionists to provide tailored, personal support to a growing number of customers.
• Natures Greatest Secret, our colloidal silver based natural health and wellbeing brand for humans and pets grew revenues by c. 8% on a like for like basis. There was strong growth in the pet category in particular which resulted from developing retail and wholesale partnerships. We expanded our range of natural herbal preventative remedies for cats and dogs has been expanded. This offer pet owners a wider range of natural solutions.
1David Hampstead, Chief Executive Officer of Samarkand Group, commented:
“We are pleased with the progress we have made in the growth and development of our owned brands. Our brands are meaningfully differentiated, well positioned in high growth natural health and wellbeing segments and enjoy strong unit economics in terms of gross margins and contribution profit. We are excited about their future growth potential and see many opportunities to expand the reach of all our brands.
Our operating model pairs specialist brand and marketing with shared resources which are leveraged across all brands. Shared resource span new product development, manufacturing, warehousing and logistics, and consumer pick pack ship. This model enables operating leverage and delivers differentiated speed to market across the portfolio. The restructuring and refocusing of the Group are largely complete. This transition can be seen in our improved performance across all metrics as we drive profitable growth in our owned brands. Our ambition for the year ahead is to grow our top line at a low double digit rate vs prior year and to further improve operating margins and EBITDA delivery through operating leverage.
The new financial year has started well. Trading in April and May was close to expectations. Both months are expected to be profitable at the EBITDA level and are showing healthy growth over the same period last year. We are excited about the future potential in the growth and development of our owned brands. While we remain wary of the external environment and the potential impact on consumer demand and input costs, we remain optimistic for the year to come.”
For more information, please contact:
Samarkand Group Limited
David Hampstead, Chief Executive Officer
Eva Hang, Chief Financial Officer
Notes to Editors
Samarkand is a consumer brand owner operating a scale up platform for meaningfully different, high growth, high potential health and healing brands. Owned brands include Napiers the Herbalists, Scotland’s oldest natural herbal apothecary brand and Zita West, a leading specialist supplement line for fertility and reproductive health as well as Natures Greatest Secret a leading colloidal silver-based health and healing brand. Brands are marketed on an omnichannel basis with strong DTC and social commerce capabilities. In addition to specialist brand and marketing teams, the Group’s brands benefit from shared operational resources including shared warehousing and logistics and pick pack ship services from the Group’s own warehouse and in house manufacturing from the Group’s own specialist production facilities. Founded in 2016, Samarkand is headquartered in Tonbridge, UK.
For further information please visit https://www.samarkand.global/