musicMagpie confident despite consumer headwinds

musicMagpie has reported a “resilient revenue performance” for the six months to 31 May according to its latest trading update, despite ongoing consumer headwinds.

The circular economy business generated revenues of £71.3m for the period, which was circa 2% down on the previous year’s figures, however sales in its consumer technology division which makes up the majority of its revenue were up by £4.3m to £46m, while sales of disk media and books fell.

The Stockport headquartered business noted that its year-on-year growth within the consumer technology market had been “intentionally tempered” by promoting of its new monthly subscription scheme rather than outright purchase. This area of the business is expected to generate higher revenue over the life of a device and benefit the group over a longer period. The focus on this service has seen its subscriber base more than triple to c.24,000 people over the last 12 months.

Steve Oliver, chief executive officer & co-founder of musicMagpie, said: “The economic environment facing consumers is increasingly tough and the issues of affordability and cash-flow constraints are being felt by many. Against that backdrop, our twin proposition of giving people a way to recycle their tech products for cash, as well as our ability to sell or rent refurbished, lower cost consumer technology products, becomes increasingly attractive.

Looking ahead the company said it acknowledges the current economic uncertainty and the impact this will have on consumer spending but the board remains confident in achieve full year expectations with a strong performance in the second half of the year.

Oliver added: “Whilst recognising we are in the early stages of our second half, our sales channel expansion has started well and we are confident about our short term growth and remain excited about our medium-term prospects.”