Maggie Beer Holdings, the food company behind celebrity chef Maggie Beer's brand, has posted a $9.53 million annual loss after a technology glitch disrupted online sales during the crucial Christmas trading period. Although the loss marks an improvement on the previous year's $14.2 million deficit, it underscores the ongoing struggles facing the business, which also saw overall sales dip slightly for the year.

The company said a botched migration to the Shopify platform in June last year caused its Google search rankings to collapse, cutting organic traffic to its hampers and gifts business by up to 38 per cent and prompting an emergency $800,000 advertising campaign that failed to prevent a 6.3 per cent fall in hamper sales. There were brighter spots, however, with Maggie Beer Products recording 8.2 per cent growth in net sales and the company ending the year debt-free with $1.9 million in cash. Chair Mark Lindh acknowledged the result "is not where we want it to be" but pointed to improved margins and a stronger balance sheet, even as the firm's share price remains more than 85 per cent below its Covid-era peak.