Park Group boosted by growing economy
PARK Group, the Birkenhead company that operates a gift voucher and prepaid gift card business for businesses and consumers, has hailed an “excellent” first half with higher sales and reduced losses.
Park, which traditionally makes a loss in the first half as the bulk of annual revenues are generated in the second half, said it was benefiting from the recovering economy and a more benign retail environment so far this year.
Chief executive Chris Houghton said simply: “More people have got more money to spend – we have seen this on both the corporate and consumer side, which is pleasing.
“The retail failures in 2012-13 did have an impact on Christmas 2013 in terms of undermining confidence, but this year the picture is brighter from that perpsective too.
In the six months to the end of September total billings rose 28.1% to £75.4m, while revenues rose a healthy 21% to £58.5m. The seasonal pre-tax loss was £2.4m, down from £2.8m in 2013.
Corporate billings are up 26.4% to £58.6m, while consumer billings were up more than a third (34.5%) to £16.8m.
Mr Houghton said orders were already starting to be received for Christmas 2015 with some £90m of orders placed already.
“Park has delivered an excellent set of results for the first half of the year. Improvement in consumer confidence continues to have a positive impact on our businesses, assisted by our ongoing investment in information technology platforms, new product developments and our focus on building partnerships with an increasing number of retailers. The strength in our order books underpins our positive outlook for the future.”
The company’s heritage was providing Christmas hampers, whcih customers would save for over the year. This makes up a small proportion of Park’s business now, accounting for around £8m out of total revenues of more than £300m, Nevertheless around 123,000 hampers will be delivered to customers in the next few weeks.
Park investors will receive a half year dividend of 0.8p per share, up 4.3%.
