Science in Sport plc (AIM: SIS), a leading sports nutrition company that develops, manufactures and markets sports nutrition products for professional athletes and sports enthusiasts, is pleased to announce the following pre-close trading update ahead of its financial results for the six months ended 30 June 2017.
The Board is pleased to report another period of strong sales increases, and significant progress in execution of the Company's growth strategy.
Sales increased 28% to £8.27 million in the six months to 30 June 2017 compared with the same period for the previous year (H1 2016: £6.48 million). The Company's e-commerce platform delivered growth of 78% across all markets, whilst there was also growth in all retail channels, which is particularly pleasing given tough trading conditions. Additionally the Company has increased investment in its US and Italian businesses and they are trading in line with expectations, as is the Australian business.
The Company increased its database of customers on its own e-commerce platform by 38% in the half year and all related conversion and trading metrics are in line with expectations. The science and innovation pipeline is healthy and revenues are expected to accelerate in the second half of the year, with a WHEY20 relaunch in July 2017, and both a premium recovery product and a novel immunity product to be launched in August 2017.
Costs remain tightly controlled, enabling the pace of investment into international markets and systems to increase in line with the growth strategy. The Company remains in a strong financial position with over £3.9m of net cash, leaving it well placed to exploit further growth opportunities as they arise. The Board remains confident of the outlook for the full year and beyond.
SiS intends to issue its half year results on Thursday 21 September 2017.