Trading update July! A good read!7 Sep 2018 15:57
Toople Plc (LSE: TOOP), a provider of bespoke telecom services to UK SMEs, today gives the following update on trading.
The Board is pleased to report that during the three months since 31 March 2018 the Company has made significant operational progress across a number of key areas within the business. The Company has achieved a number of new contract wins which are performing well and driving revenue growth. Total orders received across the business during the period were up 218% when compared to the same period in 2017.
Total revenues in the quarter grew by 27.2% when compared to 2017. During the period, gross margins also improved to 14.76% (2017: 11.95%) and within the retail division this was even higher at 23.7% (2017: 17.6%). Overall this has resulted in gross profit growth of 57.1% when compared to the corresponding period last year.
Details of some of the most notable contract wins are as follows:
· minimum 24 month contract with London-based bakery to provide full telecoms services to their 52 retail sites and company headquarters
o broadband, telephony and mobile Wi-Fi to all retail outlets
o high-speed broadband, IDSN connectivity and Wi-Fi services to headquarters and distribution offices
· 14 month contract with Southern based tyre company which also operates a fleet of mobile service vans
o all the business's mobile connections
· 24 month contract with a South East based IT, cloud and telecoms provider to move its wholesale telecoms spend to Toople
o contract expected to be worth at least £360,000
· initial 36 month contract with one of the UK's leading utility switching businesses
o a full range of products and services: business broadband, fibre, EFM and Ethernet data services, business mobile phones, cloud PBX and SIP trunking and traditional services (calls and lines) - all delivered through Merlin
· contract with leading energy business expanding its portfolio of products to offer telecoms and broadband solutions
o Toople will provide its triple play services to the business's clients
· contract with a tech services company, which will add telecoms solutions to their product offering and to be delivered by Toople
The Company continues to increase its marketing activity to drive organic growth and the investment in its new sales centre has delivered a healthy increase in orders per customer when compared with results achieved by its previously outsourced relationship, leading to an increased gross margin per customer.
In June 2018, Kevin Lawrence was appointed as CFO, which strengthens the executive team ahead of an intended move to complement the existing organic growth with the acquisition of other telecoms businesses.
Andy Hollingworth, CEO of Toople commented:
"We have worked hard to put in place new operational structures across the business and this has started to bear fruit with orders and total revenues up significantly wh