Maiden results joy for Northcoders with profit set for current year
Northcoders, a provider of training programmes for software coding, reported a 124% jump in annual revenues and sharp fall in pre-tax losses in its first full year results since joining the Alternative Investment Market last year.
The group also said Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s recent suggestion of closer links with India to make up a shortfall of tech-trained people could work in its favour.
Sales in the year to December 31, 2021, jumped from £1.341m in 2020 to £3.01m, while the pre-tax loss narrowed from £1.245m the previous year to £523,588.
Gross profit increased significantly to £2.2m from £900,000 previously, and adjusted EBITDA increased to £400,000 from a £300,000 loss in 2020.
Net assets as at December 31, 2021, were £2.2m, up from £500,000 a year ago, of which cash was £1.6m, compared with £500,000 in 2020.
Founded in Manchester in 2015, Northcoders also has bootcamps in Leeds and Newcastle and earlier this month announced plans to expand to Birmingham’s Spaces at The Mailbox, from May 3. It is also targeting a Liverpool opening this year.
In February this year it launched its second wave of skills bootcamp in coding course following a £1.65m funding boost from the Department for Education, following the successful initial roll out of the course which started in August last year.
In July last year it announced plans to raise £3.5m by floating on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) to fund its ambitions to expand its regional hubs.
Northcoders said its revenues were driven by the successful delivery of its IPO growth strategy.
In the first quarter of its current financial year, the group graduated its 1,000th person through bootcamp. Also, having received a special request from Jason Stockwood, the chairman of Grimsby Town Football Club, it will establish a facility at the club’s stadium by quarter three this year.
The company is trading in line with expectations, and at the end of the first quarter for 2022 revenue visibility stood at £3.6m, around 55% of the target revenue for the year.
Chief executive, Chris Hill, said: “We are delighted to report such a strong set of maiden financial results, demonstrating that Northcoders is successfully delivering its IPO growth strategy. Consumer and corporate demand for our services continues to increase, and we are now extending our reach across the UK as planned through our hybrid product offering.
“As the need for software and technology skills continues to increase, and digital transformation takes priority for organisations in almost every sector, Northcoders’ market leading reputation is driving demand for our training. This, coupled with our extended government contract, gives us confidence in our ability to fulfil our significant growth ambitions.”
Chief finance officer, Charlotte Prior, told TheBusinessDesk.com the company expects to be in profit in the current year, while Chris Hill said the prospect of working with India – as suggested by Boris Johnson during his recent visit to the country – to increase tech skills could provide an opportunity.
He said: “There’s so much demand, literally a gap of millions of people who need to enable themselves more technically.
“There’s such a humungous skills gap there has to be more angles of attack. We need multiple strategies and that could well be one of them. The more the merrier for us.”
Charlotte added: “There’s all different technologies people work on in India so there would be opportunities for us. We work a lot with government departments.”
