Key points: Financial
· Billings increased 7.3 per cent to £105.5m (2016 – £98.3m)
· Group revenue rose 3.1 per cent at £74.7m (2016 – £72.4m)
· Seasonal operating loss was £2.2m (2016 – loss £1.6m) reflecting the larger scale of the business
· Interest receipts were £0.7m (2016 – £0.8m) on average cash balances of £166.1m (2016 – £156.7m)
· Seasonal loss before tax £1.6m (2016 – loss £0.8m)
· Dividend raised 5.3 per cent to 1.00p per share (2016 – 0.95p per share)
· Cash balances peaked at record £229m (2016 – £217m)
Key points: Operations
· Solid performance and growth across both our corporate and consumer businesses
· Corporate billings increased 7.7 per cent to £74.0m (2016 – £68.7m)
· Consumer billings rose by 6.3 per cent to £31.4m (2016 – £29.6m)
· Order books running well ahead of comparable period last year
· Over £13m of orders already placed for Christmas 2018 via our enhanced consumer-focused mobile app
· 31 client businesses using Love2shop Worldwide to incentivise and reward their staff and customers across a number of different countries including the UK, Ireland, Italy, India, Australia and USA
Laura Carstensen, non-executive Chairman, commented: “The performance of the first half is being maintained across our corporate and consumer businesses, with trading continuing in line with the Board's expectations.
“Our operations are expanding as we capitalise on the opportunities generated by ongoing enhancement of our product ranges, enabling us to grow our customer base, while also reaching new markets and territories.”
Outlook
The performance of the first half is being maintained across our corporate and consumer businesses, with trading in line with expectations.
Our operations are expanding as we capitalise on the opportunities generated by ongoing enhancement of our product ranges, enabling us to grow our customer base, while also reaching new markets and territories.
Park is an innovative, technology enabled business but the core focus remains on preserving our long track record in outstanding customer service. We continue to listen carefully to the preferences of customers on both sides of our business and will remain agile, continually refreshing our offering to match their requirements and continuing to deliver specialist products and services with maximum efficiency. We believe that these values have helped us to evolve and achieve consistent growth over the previous few years.
These values, coupled with a debt free balance sheet and strong cash generation characteristics, enable us to look forward to the future with confidence.
Laura Carstensen
Chairman
28 November 2017