Chocolate maker Yowie told off again, this time over a surprise bill

Yowie has been told off over a surprise $US1.95 million ($2.5 million) bill the board unveiled in January.

The Aussie icon — which makes chocolates in the shape of a mythical Aussie ape-like creature — said on January 12 a US customer had sent a bill for retrospective payments based on stock adjustment over the past two years.

The ASX was unimpressed, given the company had only just cut sales guidance for 2018 from 55 per cent to 17 per cent a week earlier because of issues in North America — an admission the market operator had also given the side eye.

Yowie (ASX:YOW) said they’d only reached a verbal agreement on the claim the day before they told the market, and found out the same day they said they were cutting sales targets.

“The $US1.95 million negotiated claim is based on actual stock adjustment by the customer from February, 2016 through July, 2017, plus an estimate for August, 2017 through to the end of January, 2018,” Yowie explained.

The company has agreed to pay the bill progressively over the next twelve months.

It also says the stock adjustment claim wasn’t the cause of a half year 11.7 per cent drop in sales from North America.

In its response to the ASX, Yowie said that given how difficult sales had been in the first half of fiscal 2017, the 11.7 per cent fall in the first six months of 2018 wasn’t actually so terrible.

Yowie shares opened down 6.7 per cent at 14c — although given the ASX Small Ordinaries was also down by 3.2 per cent, Yowie’s descent isn’t all due to bad news.