Fitbug's sales in shape, but product investment weighs on full year results

Camden-based Fitbug expects full year losses in line with forecasts, despite a second half sales surge on its wearable gadgets.Although sales were almost five times higher than in its first half, the company's increased investment in product development is estimated to result in a loss of £3.6m in 2014, worse than 2013's loss of £2.7m.Second half sales were £1.4m, taking full year sales to £2.34m, dwarfing 2013's full year sales of £749,000. The Fitbug Orb product, which counts steps and burnt calories while wirelessly syncing data to phones, boasted a particularly strong performance in the fourth quarter.Chief executive Paul Landau said that retail interest will continue to grow now the products are featured in US Target stores, as well as the Argos catalogue. The business is also confident that its digital coaching app, Kigplan, has a bright future, thanks to recent partnerships with Samsung and Jawbone, as well as future compatibility with the Apple Watch come April's launch."Our new Kiqplan service proposition has been incredibly well-received in the market and we are extremely excited by its potential as awareness and understanding of it grows," said Landau.Deals with Amazon in the UK and US are being discussed and a sales distribution deal with BestBuy.com, delayed from Janurary due to a switch in their preferred distributor, will go live shortly."This is a really exciting period of opportunity for Fitbug as we see accelerating growth and convergence across the wearable tech, mobile and digital health landscape," added Landau.Fitbug share were up 17.39% to 6.75p at noon on Friday.