Toople interim losses widen but revenues grow

(Sharecast News) - Toople, which provides telecoms services to SMEs, reported a widening of its interim losses on Thursday as it took a hit from restructuring costs, but a jump in revenue.
In the six months to the end of March, pre-tax losses widened to £1.06bn from £843,579 in the same period year ago.

Toople said it incurred one-off one off restructuring costs of £78,986, while marketing costs were also higher compared to the first half of last year, reflecting its strategy to invest in digital marketing and to grow the business, "driving a significant increase in lead conversion and sales, which ultimately will result in a lower cost of acquisition per customer".

Group revenue rose 39% to £1.5m, with broadband revenue up 70% and mobile revenue doubling.

Chief executive officer Andy Hollingworth said growth was being driven by a number of factors, "not least a noticeable switch by UK SMEs to superfast fibre broadband" ahead of the phasing out of existing legacy copper infrastructure, due for completion by 2025.

"This trend is coupled with a seismic shift in UK working practices, whereby more workers are either electing or being asked to work from home, driving further reliance on home based telecoms, IT and broadband solutions," he said.

At 1150 BST, the shares were down 14.4% at 0.077p.