Appreciate Group Plc – Q3 FY22 Trading Update

Appreciate Group plc

Q3 FY22 Trading Update

Strong Q3 Performance – YTD billings ahead of FY2020 and FY2021

Appreciate Group plc (the 'Group'), the UK's leading multi-retailer redemption product provider to corporate and consumer markets, today provides an update on its key Q3 trading period for the three months ended 31 December 2021 of the current financial year (FY22). Due to the irregular impact of lockdowns in FY21, we have used FY20 as the primary comparison, the financial period prior to the pandemic, as well as providing FY21 data

Highlights

Underlying Q3 billings*   of £96.1m were 13% ahead of Q3 FY20 (£85.1m) and broadly similar to Q3 FY21 (£96.8m)

• A strong December performance with billings of £45.6m, up 41% versus same month in FY20 (£32.4m). Compared to our record month in December FY21 billings were down 2%
• Further growth in digital billings with a 13% year on year rise to £27.2m (Q3 FY20: £5.9m; Q3 FY21: £24.1m)

Total year-to-date billings up to 31 December 2021 were 8% up on FY20, and 10% ahead of FY21

Q3 was the best-ever quarter for our Corporate business with billings of £77.6m (Q3 FY20: £68.3m; Q3 FY21: £77.3m)

Q3 billings via Highstreetvouchers.com were £18.4m, up 9.5% from £16.8m in Q3 FY20, and down 5.4% from £19.5m in Q3 FY21 (which benefited from increased customer demand during tighter lockdown restrictions)

Free cash as at 31 December 2021 stood at £36.0m (31 December 2019: £19.1m; 31 December 2020: £33.5m)

* Underlying billings represents Corporate & Gifting only and excludes Christmas savings, which largely completes between December and April. The Christmas Savings' order book for Christmas 2021 (i.e. FY22) completed with billings of £164.0m.

** Year to date billings through free school meal scheme were £12.9m (FY21: 11.5m)

ERP Progress

The first phase of the Enterprise Resource Planning implementation was successfully delivered earlier in January 2022. This replaced the legacy back office systems that support our HighStreetVouchers.com website and will enable us to operate more efficiently, whilst underpinning our plans for growth.

Reinvigorating Christmas Savings

Our marketing campaign to recruit Christmas Savings' customers for Christmas 2022 got underway on Boxing Day, using a more targeted and insight-based approach, integrated across multiple channels. An update on progress of the campaign will be provided in our year-end trading statement expected in April. View the TV advert .

Great Place To Work certification retained

Great Place To Work certification has been achieved for the second year in succession, including an improved Trust Index. This reflects continued progress from our cultural transformation.

Outlook

We are on track to deliver in line with our expectations for the year as a whole.

The momentum seen in Q3 has been continued in the early weeks of Q4 with underlying billings ahead of the previous two financial years as at 17 January 2022. These are 8% up on FY20 and 10% higher than FY21.

Ian O'Doherty, Chief Executive Officer, at Appreciate Group plc, commented:

“The Group has delivered a strong peak quarter, underpinning our expectations for the year as a whole, and providing further evidence that our strategy to provide a robust and scalable platform for growth is delivering.

“ Our underlying billings year-to-date are now ahead of the previous two years and we are seeing continued growth in digital solutions and in our Corporate proposition, which represents the bulk of this business. The results provide confidence in our brand, proposition and positions in our markets.

“We remain confident in the Group's prospects to deliver long-term growth, notwithstanding economic and pandemic related uncertainties.“