SpaceandPeople, the retail, promotional and brand experience specialist, is pleased to announce its preliminary results for the 12 months ended 31 December 2018.
Financial Highlights
- Gross revenue of £18.8 million (2017: £22.4 million)
- Net revenue of £7.9 million (2017: £10.0 million)
- Loss before taxation and non-recurring items attributable to shareholders of £0.1million (2017: £1.2 million profit)
- Basic Earnings per Share before non-recurring costs of (2.2)p (2017: 4.8p)
- Cash at year end of £0.8 million with no bank borrowing (2017: £2.7 million)
- Proposed dividend of 0.5p per share (2017: 1.5p)
Operational Highlights
- Continued focus on core UK and German markets
- Challenging trading conditions in all divisions, but with pleasing contract renewals during the year with Landsec and M&G in the UK
- Continued programme of costs reduction
- Strengthening of senior team creating good opportunities
- Hammerson contract win (UK) and ECE contract extension (Germany) since the start of 2019
George Watt, Chairman, mad the following statement: Firstly, I am delighted to have taken on the Chairmanship of the Group during 2018 and on behalf of the Board I would firstly like to thank my predecessor, Charles Hammond, for his service to the Group and stewardship during that time.
During 2017, we maintained our focus on our core UK and German markets. We continued this strategy in 2018 and have successfully renewed our agreements with Landsec and M&G Investments in the UK and with ECE in Germany. In addition, we recently announced the signing of a new agreement with Hammerson plc in the UK which will provide additional opportunities for both parties.
Even though these agreements were renewed, as explained to you during 2018, trading conditions in both the UK and Germany were difficult due to a number of reasons. Unusual weather conditions with severe snow storms in the first quarter of the year followed by a long, hot summer in both the UK and Germany disrupted normal trade in venues. In addition, the World Cup over the summer distracted brands from focusing on their usual activity with us. Although normal conditions returned during the autumn and winter, we were unable to recover from the slow start to the year and a poor period of trading in the key month of December meant that the Group delivered a small operating loss on recurring activities for the year as a whole.
Notwithstanding these disappointing results, the Board will propose a dividend of 0.5p per share at the upcoming AGM.
Despite 2018 having been a difficult year, we look forward to 2019 with confidence following management’s success in securing new agreements and successfully renewing other agreements on good terms.
I would like to thank the executive directors, the senior management team and all staff across the business for all their hard work during 2018 and I am confident that this will continue and lead to a successful 2019.
spaceandpeople