The Cumbrian papermaker and advanced materials specialist said that the original terms of its £15m facility involved repaying it in 20 equal quarterly instalments of £750,000 from this month (June 2025) to March 2030. 

Under the new terms the payments will almost halve for an initial period, with James Cropper repaying £400,000 for the six quarters from June 2025 to September 2026, inclusive.

Subsequently it will pay £750,000 per quarter from December 2026 to September 2027; followed by an increased amount of £960,000 per quarter for the remaining ten quarters concluding in March 2030.

The interest rate and associated financial covenants are unchanged.

The board also said no dividends would be paid in the period to September 2026. James Cropper plans to update investors on its strategy later this month.

The group, which had sales of £103m in FY23/24, previously downgraded its outlook for the 24/25 financial year after reporting a challenging first half. It was hit by a slow-down in the luxury packaging market and in sales of its Colourform moulded fibre products.

The reset of its banking facilities will improve liquidity and help to “support implementation of the company’s strategic plans”, Cropper stated.

The group also sold some non-core intellectual property in May.

CEO David Stirling commented: “We are pleased to have secured this agreement with our lenders which provides us with greater financial headroom and look forward to updating investors on our plans for the business on 18 June.”

It will announce its full-year results for the period to 29 March next month. 

James Cropper’s share price initially rose on the news and climbed from 282.00p to 307.50p, but it then fell back and was at 280.00p at the time of writing (52-week high: 360.00p, low: 125.15p).