Trading Update

RNS Number : 2905X

Altitude Group PLC

07 February 2013

 

7 February 2013

Altitude Group plc

("Altitude" or the "Company" or the "Group")

Trading Update

Altitude Group plc (AIM: ALT), a leading provider of technology and enterprise information management solutions to the print and promotional products sector, provides the following trading update ahead of announcing financial results for the year ended 31 December 2012 in early  April 2013.

Highlights

§ Successful 7^th annual Trade Only National Show held in January 2013;

§ Appointment of Chief Operating Officer and other senior management resources in the USA to support new accounts;

§ Key accounts announced in 2012 scheduled for implementation within the first half of 2013; and

§ Net cash at 31 December 2012 of £0.7m (31 December 2011: £0.3m).

Trading Update 

UK

The January 2013 Trade Only National Show was the Company's most successful, with final revenues up approximately 10% against those of the 2012 show. Early re-bookings for the 2014 show, confirmed during the 2013 show, are at a similar level as the same time last year.

North America

In the USA, the success of Trade Only Inc. in securing accounts such as EmbroidMe and SIGNARAMA resulted in a need to increase local resources substantially in the last quarter of 2012, particular within the customer services and development teams. In addition, the senior management of our USA operations was strengthened with the appointments of Alan Patrick as Chief Operating Officer and Julie Henderson as Financial Controller.

The benefits of the investments made in personnel are now being realised, assisting with the migration of the first EmbroidMe franchisees onto the Trade Only VISION® platform.  The roll out of this contact will continue into Q2 2013.  Completion of the SIGNARAMA implementation is anticipated on schedule during Q2 2013.

The agreement with Promo Marketing Media Group announced in November 2012 for it to be a reseller for all of the Trade Only software as a service ("SaaS") solutions within the promotional products industry is beginning to bear fruit and early signs of new customer acquisition is encouraging.

Toronto-based Trade Only Technical Services delivered a 70% increase in its contribution to the Group's 2012 revenues from its sales of the Technologo™ virtual sampling technology. Management consider that there is substantial scope to grow sales of this technology globally in the coming years and for it to make a significant contribution to future Group revenues, and sales activity will be increased accordingly.

Colin Cooke, Chairman of Altitude Group, said:

"Our North American operations have developed at pace during the latter part of 2012 and the need to add additional resources to meet customer demand is an encouraging sign of the opportunities for the Group's SaaS technology in this market. These investments are beginning to deliver results and I look forward to an acceleration of progress in the year ahead."

Enquiries:

Altitude Group plc
Martin Varley (Chief Executive Officer)	Tel: [phone] (UK) Tel: [phone] (US)
Merchant Securities (Nominated Adviser and Broker)
Simon Clements / Catherine Miles	Tel: [phone]

 

END

 

 

MSCNKADDPBKDDBK