Financial highlights
· 4.6 per cent rise in operating profit to £10.9m (2016 – £10.4m)
· 4.2 per cent growth in profit before tax to £12.4m (2016 – £11.9m)
· 5.1 per cent advance in billings to £404.5m (2016 – £385.0m)
· Proposed final dividend raised to 1.95p per share (2016 – 1.90p) making a total dividend for the year up 5.5 per cent to 2.90p per share (2016 – 2.75p per share)
· Total cash balances peaked at £217m (2016 – £206m). Year end cash balance was £31.4m (2016 – £28.8m) with a further £83.0m (2016 – £75.2m) of monies held in trust
Operational highlights
· Ongoing delivery against strategy – Maintained the growth of the first half and delivered another positive trading performance for the year as a whole
· Focus on technology continues – Over 90 per cent of total orders now taken online, compared with just 10 per cent in 2008
Corporate business
· Another strong performance with billings rising by 6.3 per cent to £187.7m (2016 – £176.7m)
· ‘Evolve’ digital reward platform (launched in June 2016) proving successful, with over 165 corporate clients using the web portal to date. Post period end, the platform’s reach was expanded to service international customers (Love2shop Worldwide, launched May 2017).
· Acquisition of Fisher Moy International (FMI) in October 2016 provided a good fit and integration of this business is progressing well
Consumer business
· Billings within the consumer business increased by 4.0 per cent to £216.8m (2016 – £208.4m)
· Number of customer accounts grew by 6.3 per cent to over 168,000 (2016 – 158,000) and customer numbers rose to 431,000 (2016 – 429,000) while the average customer order value improved 3.9 per cent to £508 (2016 – £489).
· New mobile app for Christmas savings customers launched
· Park is now a licensed issuer of Mastercard products – allows Park to issue products faster and with greater flexibility, whilst operating more efficiently
· Orders for Christmas 2017 are again ahead of the previous year at this stage in the cycle
CEO Succession
· Chris Houghton, Park’s Chief Executive Officer, has indicated his intention to retire. A comprehensive process will be put in place to appoint a suitable successor.
Laura Carstensen, Chairman, commented: “The current year has started well as we have, again, maintained the progress of the previous period. The outlook for our corporate and consumer businesses is positive, with order books ahead of their position at the same time last year. We will continue to deliver against our strategy, focusing on excellent customer service and product innovation, to grow our customer bases and broaden the range of products and services we can offer to them.”