Profits take a hit for petrol station software services firm

KALIBRATE Technologies, the Manchester-based provider of software services to petrol retailers is reporting steady revenue growth for the six months to the end of December, but profits have tumbled.

Turnover for the company, which operates in North America, Europe, India and Africa, increased 2% $15.9m (H1 2015: $15.6m).

However, underlying EBITDA fell to $1.4m (H1 2015: $2.3m), reflecting delays of pricing deals which moved into H2 and have now been signed and a change in the mix between pricing and planning.

Investment in infrastructure was also needed to meet software as a service (SaaS) demand. Profit before tax was $0.1m (H1 2015: $1.2 m).

Operational highlights included new business in Latin America (Mexico and Chile) and India and 100% client retention during H1 2016 as well as an increased recurring revenue order book.

Meanwhile, Kalibrate Cloud now houses all solutions for motor fuel pricing, retail network planning and market data intelligence within single cloud-based platform.

Kalibrate chief executive Bob Stein said:  “The results demonstrate that Kalibrate is delivering on its strategy and we remain confident in our ability to meet market expectations for the full year.

“We are continuing to see good demand for our pricing and planning solutions, both in core and new geographies. The group is benefiting from the continued move to SaaS contracts which brings with it revenue visibility and secure, long-term recurring revenues.
 
“The addition of merchandise pricing and promotion to our offer is an important move and will let us service not only our existing client base that have convenience retail operations, but will also enable us to engage with convenience retail only operators.”