Hills Ltd has squeezed back into the black with the help of a $6 million termination payment from Woolworths in the wake of the Masters hardware disaster.

Hills, which no longer owns the Hills hoist clothesline range of products, dumped a plan to fold a healthcare technology business into a new ASX-listed entity in December, with new chief executive David Lenz now relying on a back-to-basics approach to try and restore confidence.