LONDON (Alliance News) - Grafenia PLC Monday raised its interim dividend for the half year to end-September, which it said reflects its cautious optimism on its prospects going forward despite concerns over the demise of the traditional print market.
It proposed an interim dividend of 0.50 pence, up from 0.33 pence in the previous year.
The printing services firm posted a pretax profit of GBP371,000, up from GBP305,000, despite seeing revenue decline to GBP8.5 million from GBP10.1 million, as a result of lower costs.
Print revenues fell to GBP7.9 million from GBP9.5 million. The company said it was mindful that "the traditional retail print market is in demise and cautious in that our on-line channels operate in competitive markets that are fickle with little brand loyalty."
The company has been bolstering its digital efforts to counter this decline, including the development of its Nettl format. This provides websites, online shops and applications as well as services offered by its Printing.com franchise. Grafenia believes that small and medium enterprises are increasing marketing spend on online promotion, and is hoping to target these customers with Nettl.
Nettl charges higher fees, and the company said that it was encouraged by its initial presentations of Nettl, and expects to sign its first contracts for Nettl over the coming weeks.
"The foundation of Grafenia plc was the Printing.com franchise format. In Nettl we believe we have a formula that by the close of the current financial year will have gained significant traction," the company said in a statement.
Revenues from its Marqetspace online portal and users of its cloud-based printing software system W3P rose to GBP290,000 from GBP130,000 a year before. The company said Marqetspace has shown "encouraging promise" as it added new clients. Grafenia said it believes it is realistic that Marqetspace's annualised monthly run rate will exceed GBP1 million by March 2015.
Shares in Grafenia are trading down 4.7% at 20.50 pence Monday morning.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; hanassmith@alliancenews.com; @HanaSSAllNews
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