City briefs: Topps Tiles; Cloudcall

Leicester-based Topps Tiles has seen sales fall for the first half of its finacial year.

Sales came in at £103.6m for the 26 weeks to March 27 – down from £106.2m in 2020.

The company is blaming the fall on the closure of stores to retail customers.

Rob Parker, CEO, said: “Our revenues for the first half reflect a very strong first quarter followed by a period over the majority of the second quarter when sales, particularly to homeowners, were significantly impacted by the trading restrictions imposed on our stores during the third national lockdown. The group adapted to the changed environment swiftly and effectively, producing a resilient performance in the circumstances.

“We are looking forward to the lifting of lockdown restrictions in April and are concentrating on being well prepared for the return of all customers to our stores.”

Losses at Cloudcall, the Leicester-based cloud-based software business, have widened, according to newly-filed results.

The firm made a loss after tax of £5.7m last year, up from a deficit of £2.9 in 2019. Revenues at the firm rose by 4% to £11.8m over the same period.

Simon Cleaver, chief executive officer of CloudCall, said: “Despite the challenges we faced in 2020 as the ramifications of COVID-19 became clear, I am delighted to report that the recovery from the initial impact to our customers and prospects was strong, effectively giving us a ‘deep V’ shape to the year. Indeed, I was particularly pleased to note that many of our sales KPIs were stronger post-COVID than they were pre-COVID, demonstrating the effectiveness of CloudCall’s CRM-based go-to-market strategy and increasing product market fit as the pandemic accelerates the trend towards remote working.

“Whilst COVID-19 continues to impact the broader global economic environment, I am pleased to report that we have been hard at work strengthening the business with considerable investments in sales and marketing, our senior management team and our internal tools and processes, all of which improve our scalability and readiness to drive forward as the markets return. We have already seen the benefits of these investments in H2 2020 and the group has made an encouraging start to 2021.”