WILLIAM SINCLAIR HOLDINGS PLC

("William Sinclair", the "Company" or the "Group")

Unaudited Interim Results for the six months ended 31 March 2015

William Sinclair Holdings PLC is one of the UK's leading producers of horticulture products.  William Sinclair's customers include The Garden Centre Group, B&Q, Tesco, Wilkinson, and Morrisons, as well as a large number of independent garden centres and garden centre groups.

Financial Highlights

·    Revenue £18.7 million (2014: £21.8 million)

·    Loss before exceptional items and tax £3.5 million (2014: loss of £1.8 million)

·    Exceptional costs of £2.3 million (2014: £1.3 million) arising from production issues at Ellesmere Port

·    Exceptional impairment charge on properties of £2.2 million

Operational Highlights

·    Strategically located Ellesmere Port Site, with the world's first twin track growing media blending system is now operational, with the majority of the issues now addressed.

·    Investment in the J Arthur Bowers range has improved sell through

·    Transformed product quality for retail - it is now back to its best

·    Reinforced management team

·    Surplus properties at Knottingley and Oswaldtwistle sold.

Stuart Burgin, Chief Executive, William Sinclair Holdings PLC, said:

"Since I joined William Sinclair as CEO on 5th March there has been a huge level of activity in the business. This has been focused in 2 key areas: improving the performance of the Ellesmere Port site, and analysing the business and developing plans for the future. I am pleased to say that commissioning of Ellesmere Port has moved forward considerably and that we have developed strong plans for the future revolving around a single point of dispatch from Ellesmere Port and increased focus on customer and product profitability. Provided we are successful in raising the funds required to implement these plans, I am confident that William Sinclair can be successful again."

For further information:

William Sinclair Holdings PLC                      Tel: 01522 780 222

Stuart Burgin, Chief Executive

Sheryl Tye, Interim Chief Finance Officer

WH Ireland                                                           Tel: 0113 394 6600

Paul Shackleton
Liam Gribben                                        

CHAIRMAN'S STATEMENT

For the 6 months ended 31 March 2015 (unaudited)

Trading Review

It has been a difficult period as the Company has continued to go through massive changes associated with the installation and commissioning of the plant at Ellesmere Port.  The commissioning was considerably more challenging than expected and this led to a loss of business predominantly on the professional side as we were unable to service our customers at times.  Sales were also lost on the retail side in part because of customer uncertainty about security of supply and service levels in Ellesmere Port's first season. Margins have also been weak as the company has had to defend its business in some areas.

Although there were issues with product quality initially at Ellesmere Port there is now a consensus among retail customers in particular that the product quality is better than ever. Service levels from Ellesmere Port were also poor initially but these improved substantially through March and April and are now operating at the required level.

Freeland is performing in line with the prior year with Silvaperl a little behind.

With the significant capital and operating costs of Ellesmere Port during its commissioning phase, the performance has led to a significant funding requirement for the business.

Stuart Burgin and Sheryl Tye have been appointed as CEO and interim CFO respectively to lead the turnaround. They are both experienced operators with strong track records managing companies going through significant change.

In order to address the issues a Transformation Plan has been developed to ensure that William Sinclair does return over time to previous levels of financial performance. This Transformation Plan is now being implemented. The major components of the plan are the closure of the Lincoln site to drive the cost efficiencies and customer service benefits available from having all growing media operations on a single site; improved commercial focus particularly with respect to customer and product profitability; improved procurement; and an improvement in the Superfyba model to reduce the net cost of Superfyba to a level closer to the cost of peat.

The phased closure of Lincoln has been announced and is being implemented. Initially the growing media operations will move to Ellesmere Port with the Fertiliser and Chemicals business remaining in Lincoln for the coming season.

Outlook

The consideration of strategic options that the company referred to on 26 May 2015 is ongoing.   This comprehensive process is now past its first phase and a number of indications of interest have been received. The board is continuing discussions with the counter-parties.  The Company is also arranging meetings with major stakeholders and other potential investors to establish the market appetite for a significant share placing. Significant progress towards a funding solution is needed in the next few weeks and there can be no certainty as to the outcome of any of these discussions.

William Sinclair has been through more than three years of challenge. It started with the Bolton Fell agreement with Natural England and the requirement to plan for a new factory. There was then a very poor peat harvest which caused significant quality and customer issues. It continued with the relocation of the Superfyba and Silvaperl operations into Ellesmere Port, alongside the ongoing development of Superfyba. In the last 9 months we have installed and commissioned the growing media plant at Ellesmere Port. The final challenge is the relocation of Lincoln into Ellesmere Port but we are confident that, as Ellesmere Port is now an operating site, this will prove considerably easier than establishing the site.

With these challenges dealt with, William Sinclair can once again be focused on delivering market beating quality and service to its customers and on efficient operations. Provided we can raise the required funding William Sinclair can continue to be a significant player in the horticulture market.

Rupert King

Chairman

Group Cash Flow Statement

for the six months ended 31 March 2015 (unaudited)

Reconciliation of net cash flow to movement in net debt

Notes to the financial information

1.     Taxation

The tax credit in the Group Income Statement arises on movements in the pensions costs in the period and on movements in the revaluation reserve following the impairment of certain fixed asset properties.  No deferred tax asset has been created in respect of the losses for the period other than these items.  The deferred tax asset based on losses at 30 September 2014 has been retained in the balance sheet.

2.     Dividend

No final dividend was paid during the period (2014: 1.5p).  No interim dividend will be paid this year (2014: nil).

3.     Earnings per share

Basic earnings per share have been calculated by reference to a weighted average of 17,377,420 (2014: 17,112,890) shares in issue during the period.

4.     Exceptional Items

During the period to 31 March 2015 the Group incurred exceptional restructuring costs of £537,000 including certain redundancy costs as well as consultant fees.  In addition, there were dual running costs of £284,000 and excess operational costs during the installation of the new equipment at Ellesmere Port which amounted to £430,000.  The total of these costs is £1,251,000 and this total is included as an exceptional item.

The Group completed an impairment review of its property assets and made a provision of £2,165,000 against their carrying value.  The provision has been charged as an exceptional item in the income statement.

The development of SuperFyba has continued to incur unexpected costs.  A total amounting to £600,000 has been estimated as the exceptional element of these costs and is disclosed as such in the income statement.

Finally, the production difficulties at Ellesmere Port resulted in significant interruption to the supply of products to professional customers.  This supply could not be mitigated by production at the Lincoln factory in the same way as for retail customers and as a consequence an exceptional loss of contribution from the professional customer base was incurred.  This loss is estimated at £483,000 and an expense if included in the income statement at this figure within exceptional items.

The total of all exceptional items in the period to 31 March 2015 is £4,499,000.

During the six month period to 31 March 2014 the Group undertook a refinancing exercise at a cost of £987,000 and dual running costs were estimated at £272,000.  The total exceptional items disclosed was therefore £1,259,000.

For the year ended 30 September 2014 exceptional items included the settlement of the Natural England claim in June 2014 at £12.25 million.  The net credit to the Group Income Statement was £9,447,000.  The tax impact of this gain is a credit of £727,000.

In addition to the costs incurred by 31 March 2014 the Group incurred further costs in respect of refinancing of £402,000 making £1,389,000 for the full year and further dual running costs of £1,072,000 making £1,344,000 for the full year.

Furthermore the development of the SuperFyba operation at Ellesmere Port resulted in exceptional costs of £850,000 in the second half year and a restructuring of the sales function cost £191,000 in the same period.

The total of all exceptional expenses in the year to 30 September 2014 was £3,774,000 and exceptional gains was £9,447,000.

5.     Basis of preparation

The financial information set out in the interim report has been prepared in accordance with accounting policies under International Financial Reporting Standards as adopted by the European Union ('IFRS') as detailed in the financial statements for the year ended 30 September 2014.  These policies are expected to be followed in the financial statements for the year ending 30 September 2015.

The interim report has been approved by the Board of Directors and is neither audited nor reviewed.  The interim financial information does not constitute statutory accounts within the meaning of section 434 of the Companies Act 2006.

The financial information for the year ended 30 September 2014 is extracted from the audited accounts for that period.  Those accounts have been delivered to the Registrar of Companies.  The auditors' report on them was unqualified and did not contain a statement under either section 498(2) or section 498(3) of the Companies Act 2006.

The Group does not consider that any standards or interpretations issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), but not yet applicable, will have a significant impact on the financial statements for the year ending 30 September 2015.

A copy of this interim report will be posted to shareholders shortly and will be available to view on the Company's website at www.william-sinclair.co.uk.