Park Group rewarded by profit surge

STRONG demand from businesses and consumers has helped to lift profits at Christmas savings and gift voucher firm Park Group by a third.

The AIM-listed Birkenhead-based company said pre-tax profits rose by 33% to £7m in the year to March 31. Sales increased by 6% to £279.9m.

During the year the company also received £4.4m from HM Revenue & Customs after settling a long-running VAT dispute, and earned £1.8m after selling its Dock Road North site to a housebuilder.

Park’s consumer division, which handles Christmas savings and online sales of vouchers and pre-paid gift cards, saw operating profits climb 59% to £4.5m on revenues of £168.4m, up 8%.

Its corporate arm, which looks after vouchers and pre-paid cards which businesses use to incentivise staff and reward customers, also enjoyed strong growth with earnings up 23% to £3.9m on sales of £111.5, up 4%.

Park’s flexecash rewards card, launched last year, has already been taken up by 330 corporate clients and is now accepted by 26 retailers.

Group managing director Chris Houghton, pictured, said the business, which has seasonal revenues based around Christmas, is benefiting from the growth of year-round corporate sales. It has also seen strong demand from consumers for its pre-paid cards which are often used by people living abroad to send gifts.

“We know what we’ve sold for next Christmas – we have 5% growth year-on-year,” said Mr Houghton. “We also have a good level of underlying business on the corporate side. At the moment the economic environment is quite tough but we’re doing reasonably well.”

Park, which employs around 200 permanent staff, has also focused on developing its web presence and succeeded in putting £100m of sales through its websites for the first time.

The proposed final dividend is up 36% to 1.2p a share making the total for the year 1.7p.