Robinson Shares Fall as Key Customer Contract Non-Renewal Clouds 2027 Outlook

Robinson plc (LON: RBN), the Chesterfield-based manufacturer of plastic and paperboard packaging, saw its shares fall 5.9% in London trading on Friday after flagging the loss of a significant customer contract. The company issued the update in a regulatory news service announcement via the London Stock Exchange.

The lapsing contract generates around £3.3m of annual revenue and contributes roughly £1.0m to annual gross profit. It is due to expire at the end of December and will not be renewed. Left unaddressed, the loss would cut both FY2027 revenue and underlying operating profit by about those same amounts: roughly £3.3m and £1.0m respectively.

Excluding any benefit from mitigation, the board now anticipates FY2027 profitability will be broadly in line with FY2026, rather than showing growth. Robinson said it retains a strong, ongoing relationship with the affected customer and will keep supplying a range of products to it across its factory network, describing the customer relationship itself as continuing beyond the end of this particular contract.

The company said it is actively pursuing operational initiatives and new business development to offset the shortfall, though it has not put a figure on any expected benefit from either strand of that work.

Current-year guidance was untouched: directors continue to expect underlying operating profit before other items for the 2026 financial year to be in line with market expectations, unaffected by the contract’s later expiry. That guidance covers the twelve months to the end of 2026, a period the non-renewal falls outside of, since the contract runs until the end of December.

Robinson did not name the customer or the sector the contract served in Friday’s update, and did not put a date on when it expects to give a further update on its mitigation efforts, nor did it quantify the scale of benefit it expects from the operational initiatives and new business development it referenced.