Altitude Group Regulatory News (ALT)

Altitude Group plc

("Altitude", the "Group" or the "Company")

UNAUDITED PRELIMINARY RESULTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2016

Altitude Group plc (AIM: ALT), the operator of a leading marketplace for personalised products, announces its unaudited preliminary results for the year ended 31 December 2016.

Financial Highlights:

· Major turnaround in legacy business completed and Company returned to profitability

· Profit before taxation £0.1m (2015 Loss £1.3m), an increase of £1.4m

· Increase in gross margin to 81% (2015 78.0%)

· Adjusted operating profit* increased by £0.3m or 94.1% to £0.6m

· Net cash inflow from operating activities improved by £1.2m to £0.5m (2015 outflow £0.7m)

· Group remains free of bank borrowing, with net cash resources increasing by £0.3m to £0.7m (2015 £0.4m)

· Proposed £2.5m new equity raise (before expenses) announced today to finance and accelerate future growth of Channl in the US and UK, including the £0.8m acquisition of the trade and certain assets of Ad Products.com Limited a UK based supplier of promotional products

* before amortisation of intangible assets, share-based payments, exceptional charges and non-recurring administrative expenses.

Operational Highlights:

· 66,000 Channl.com ("Channl") US sites now created for distributors and their customers with user experience and interface significantly enhanced. Product range to be extended in 2017 to include print services in partnership with major US tier one provider

· US Channl site engagement/activation program launched end Feb 2017, potential is greater than expected. Agreement with Market Brands, a direct marketing business announced on 19 April 2017 to increase site generation and engagement. Significant Channl site generation planned for 2017

· Major US Technology Partnership Agreements announced for Channl.com with Aprinta, AI Mastermind and Market Brands

Executive Chairman, Peter Hallett, commented:

"The Group remains absolutely focussed on the generation of Channl.com ecommerce sites for distributors enabling them to serve their end-user customers by helping them to easily conduct their B2B purchases online. Simultaneously, we continue to improve and enhance the user experience, capability and overall functionality. Channl.com site generation is being scaled up in the US through our partnership with Aprinta and a new partnership with Market Brands. We are also expanding the product offering into the highly complementary niche of print and photo gifts through a new partnership with a major tier one US provider.

The Board believe these changes will encourage engagement and activation of Channl sites by distributors and their end-user customers, the engagement of whom is still at a formative stage and too early to provide an indication of representative performance. However, we remain confident that the solution is compelling and potentially structurally changing in the $21 billion US personalised and promotional products, signage and printed wearables market ("the US market") and is capable of providing entry into the US print market.

We also announce today a proposed fund raise of £2.5 million (before expense) which will ensure the Company has flexibility in funding to significantly increase the number of US Channl.com web sites created for distributors and end users, gain traction in terms of their activation and engagement and support the UK launch of Channl through the acquisition of the trade and certain assets of Ad Products.com Limited, a UK based supplier. The Board remains confident and believes that further migration of the US market to on-line is inevitable, and that our solution can play a significant role therein. We are focused on creating a significant market position and allocating resources to maximise engagement traction."

Enquiries:

The information communicated in this announcement is inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation 596/2014.

Chairman's Statement

I am pleased to present the results for the year ended 31 December 2016, which saw the business deliver a profit before tax of £0.1m (2015 loss of £1.3m), and increase net cash inflow by £1.3m to £0.4m (2015 outflow of £0.9m).

This turnaround has been achieved as a result of the substantial restructuring of the business which commenced in April 2015, and which removed approximately £1.8m of annualised recurring operating costs. 

We have now finalised new branding for the "click to ship" model as Channl.com ("Channl"), more of which is detailed below, and as shareholders will be aware from previous communications, our strategic priority is the roll-out of our "click to ship", now "Channl", online trading solution in the $21 billion US personalised and promotional products, signage and printed wearables market (the "US market"). 

Today we also announce a proposed new equity fund raise of £2.5 million, which is conducted within the board's existing authority levels. The proceeds are to be used to finance and accelerate future growth of Channl in the US and UK, including the £0.8m acquisition of the trade and certain assets of Ad Products.com Limited, a small UK based supplier. These assets will facilitate the launch of Channl to distributors in the UK by supplementing our UK supply base.

Development of Channl

On 14 June 2016 we announced an enterprise level technology agreement with Aprinta Group ("Aprinta") of Rochester New York US, a leader in the provision of screen printing and promotional product supply to approximately 40,000 US distributors and resellers. This was followed on 5 August 2016 with the announcement of a technology partnership agreement with AI Mastermind, a leading US buying group serving more than 1,000 large promotional product distributors and resellers in the US (together the "Agreements").

The Agreements provide the Company with immediate access to a large number of distributors, resellers and their end users in the highly fragmented personalised and promotional product, signage and printed wearables industry within the US, a market estimated to be worth approximately $21 billion per annum.

Since Q4 of 2016, the Company has been generating Channl sites in the US for distributors (and their own customers) of our main partners Aprinta and AI Mastermind. I am pleased to report that the current number of sites generated now stands at over 66,000.

Each Channl site provides a full e-commerce platform to personalised product distributors, resellers and/or their end user customers, including a product database, product visualisation, cart, order management and production ready artwork functionality at no cost to the reseller or their customers. Our aim is to provide the easiest way to purchase and personalise promotional products on-line. The Company will be remunerated as a percentage of supplier revenue processed through the online trading platform.

During this time we have also been significantly enhancing the user experience and interface:-

· Developed a unique and simplified "logo search" facility which enables users to customise their site with a logo sourced from the internet, removing the need for them to provide their own image file

· Re-designed and commercialised the home page design, improving the interface to promote immediate engagement

· On 19 April 2017 we announced a partnership agreement for the supply of print, signage and photo book products with a leading tier one manufacturer in the US, which will naturally complement and expand addition to our current promotional product offering. Details of the provider are commercially sensitive but with a current peak output of 100,000 orders per day and manufacturing efficiency that will allow our resellers to compete on price and service, this agreement has the potential to substantially enhance the Channl offering to distributors, resellers and end user customers.

In February we launched the start of our engagement program, which will contact distributors and resellers who have a Channl site through a series of targeted and incentivising digital marketing campaigns, supplemented by call centre based support both from our strategic partners and Company staff, to begin the process of site engagement and activation by the distributors, resellers and their end user customers..

On 19 April 2017 we also announced a partnership agreement with Market Brands LLP, ("Market Brands") a sales organisation of approximately 50 sales staff based in Buffalo, New York State, US, which will be powered by our Channl.com technology, with a target to create tens of thousands of Channl brand stores for small businesses across the US.

As a result the Board remains convinced of the market potential of the solution and we believe the scale of the opportunity is greater than originally perceived. Given the scale of our ambition and the volume of sites created in the US, we today announced a fund raise which will, we believe, help us to achieve transactional throughput through engagement and activation faster.

Customer Focus SaaS Technology

The Company continues to provide technology support through software as a service ("SaaS") to the personalised product distributors and suppliers in the UK and US on a monthly recurring revenue model. Our applications are wide ranging, including a comprehensive ERP system ("Promoserve"), web stores, online search and logo design, personalisation tools and image archiving.

During 2016, Revenue from these services in the UK has been maintained, though a £0.1m decrease was seen in North America, as our result of our closure of the loss making Canadian business in 2015. The remaining US technology business maintained revenue at 2015 levels.

We remain committed to our legacy SaaS clients in the UK, and will particularly look to help our existing distributors migrate their clients online through Channl. The acquisition of certain UK production assets and trade announced today will help to facilitate this service,

Trade Only Exhibitions & Publications

Our Exhibition and Publications business continues to perform well. The January 2016 National Show at the Ricoh Stadium, Coventry, showed another strong performance with over 2,000 delegates and suppliers attending the main event, all being involved in the print, promotional and personalised gift sectors, and with the potential to market and drive additional sales of our SaaS products, the National Show remains an important part of the Group.

The recent January 2017 National Show was similarly successful and we therefore expect another solid performance from this business in 2017 and 2018.

Similarly the publications business continues to perform strongly with our two published catalogues, Envoy and Spectrum retaining their position as the leading catalogues in the UK industry.

The combined business is profitable, cash generative and provides a strong platform for the UK SaaS business. 

Results

Revenue was £0.2m or 4.7% lower at £4.3m (2015 £4.5m) with £0.1m of the reduction in the exhibition and publishing business and £0.1m of technology revenue lost as a result of the closure of the Canadian operations in 2015. However, gross profit was maintained at £3.5m as overall margin increased to 81.0% (2015 78.0%) largely attributable to the strong performance of the exhibitions and publications business.

Administration expenses (before amortisation of intangible assets, share-based payments, exceptional charges and non-recurring administrative expenses) decreased by £0.3m, or 9.6%, to £2.9m (2015 £3.2m), largely as a result of cost reductions effected through restructuring undertaken in 2015. If the items classed as non recurring expenses in 2015 are included in the comparative, the adjusted decrease is £1.0m or 26.1%.

Adjusted operating profit* of £0.6m (2015 £0.3m) increased by £0.3m largely due to the restructuring which has resulted in a much reduced overhead base. Exceptional charges of £0.1m (principally the redundancy costs of the former Managing Director of Customer Focus) were £0.3m or 83.2% lower (2015 £0.4m), whilst non-recurring administrative expenses in 2016 were zero (2016 £0.7m). Amortisation of intangible assets reduced by £0.1m as assets capitalised in 2011 became fully amortised.

Included within administrative costs are software maintenance and development costs of £0.3m, (2015 £0.3m), as the Group has maintained its support and development of its proprietary software assets. In addition, the Group capitalised £0.3m of software development costs (2015 £0.2m). The current level of expensed and capitalised development costs is representative of an adequate maintenance level of expenditure and continuous improvement of proprietary software assets including Channl.com and artworktooltm.

The resulting operating profit and profit before tax for the period was £0.1m (2015 loss £1.3m), reflecting a turnaround of £1.4m.

Basic earnings per share were 0.17p (2015 loss per share 2.91p) and fully diluted earnings per share were 0.15p (2015 loss per share 2.91p)

Net cash inflow from operating activities was £0.5m (2015 outflow of £0.7m) and the cash outflow from investment in intangible assets increased by £0.1m to £0.3m (2015 £0.2m) producing an increase in net cash inflow for the financial year of £1.1m to £0.2m (2015 outflow £0.9m).

In addition, the exercise of EMI employee share options during Q4 of 2016 resulted in a further £0.2m of cash inflow, bringing total net cash inflow to £0.4 for the year (2015 outflow £0.9m).

The Group remains debt free and had cash resources as at 31 December 2016 of £0.7m (2015 £0.4m). In addition, on 30 January 2017 the Company announced the receipt of a notice of exercise in relation to Warrants to subscribe for 1,500,060 ordinary shares of 0.4p each at a price of 36p per share. The Warrants were granted to Zeus Capital Limited, the Company's Financial and Nominated Adviser at the time of the Company's admission to trading on AIM in November 2005. The Company has issued and allotted the requisite shares which were admitted to trading on AIM on 3 February 2017. The exercise of the Warrants resulted in a further cash inflow of £0.5m in February 2017.

* before amortisation of intangible assets, share-based payments, exceptional charges and non-recurring administrative expenses

Board Changes

On 28 January 2016, I was appointed Non-Executive Chairman, with Richard Sowerby becoming Non-Executive Director, and Martin Varley appointed as Chief Executive Officer. In addition Shaun Parker was appointed to the Board as Chief Operating Officer effectively replacing Vicky Robinson, former MD of Customer Focus.

On 25 January 2017, we announced several further board changes. I became Executive Chairman with immediate effect and the following appointments effected from 1 February 2017:

· Martin Varley appointed President

· Sanjay Lobo joined us and was subsequently appointed to the Board as Managing Director on 3 April 2017 following completion of customary due diligence; and

· Gellan Watt joined as Independent Non Executive Director

In addition it was announced that Richard Sowerby would step down from the Board with effect from 30 April 2017. We thank Richard for his tremendous contribution to the business.

My appointment to Executive Chairman, was to particularly help develop the finance function and assist the team to accelerate the evolution of the business. This current three day week commitment is intended to be a temporary measure whilst we seek to appoint a full time Chief Financial Officer.

Martin remains fully committed to the Company, his primary business interest, in a new role of President. Relinquishing responsibilities for day to day management to Sanjay, Martin will focus his unique skills and contacts to help guide our strategic direction in respect of Channl, and seek to maximise shareholder value from our other software applications that have not yet been commercialised.

Sanjay is a seasoned e-commerce leader with a background of revenue growth through strategic partnerships with large multinational companies and brands. He joins Altitude following seven years in the senior management team of Vistaprint, where he most recently launched Vistaprint Corporate Solutions, which focused on the mid and enterprise market, running sales & marketing for North America and Europe.

Gellan is a global brand strategist of repute, and most recently held the position of Managing Director and Chief Creative Officer of Emerge Group, the twelfth largest independent agency group in the UK. He was placed in Elite Business' Top 15 Media Industry Power Faces in 2015 as well as The Drum's Marketing Power 100 and has been a former Marketing Industry Managing Director of the Year. Following the successful sale of Emerge Group in 2016, he now consults with global agencies, brands and start up companies on growth and brand strategy.

Outlook

The Group remains absolutely focussed on the generation of Channl.com ecommerce sites for distributors enabling them to serve their end-user customers by helping them to easily conduct their B2B purchases online. Simultaneously, we continue to improve and enhance the user experience, capability and overall functionality. Channl.com site generation is being scaled up in the US through our partnership with Aprinta and a new partnership with Market Brands. We are also expanding the product offering into the highly complementary niche of print and photo gifts through a new partnership with a major tier one US provider.

The Board believe these changes will encourage engagement and activation of Channl sites by distributors and their end-user customers, the engagement of whom is still at a formative stage and too early to provide an indication of representative performance. However, we remain confident that the solution is compelling and potentially structurally changing in the $21 billion US personalised and promotional products, signage and printed wearables market ("the US market") and is capable of providing entry into the US print market.

We also announce today a proposed fund raise of £2.5 million (before expenses) which will ensure the Company has flexibility in funding to significantly increase the number of US Channl.com web sites generated for distributors and end users, gain traction in terms of activation and engagement and support the UK launch of Channl through the acquisition of the trade and certain assets of Ad Products.com Limited, a UK based supplier. The Board remains confident and believes that further migration of the US market to on-line is inevitable, and that our solution can play a significant role therein. We are focused on creating a significant market position and allocating resources to maximise engagement traction.

Peter J Hallett

Executive Chairman

Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive Income 

for the year ended 31 December 2016

Consolidated Balance Sheet

as at 31 December 2016

Consolidated Cash Flow Statement

for the year ended 31 December  2016

Consolidated Statement of Changes in Equity

Notes

1 Financial information

The financial information set out herein does not constitute the Group's statutory accounts for the year ended 31 December 2016 or the year ended 31 December 2015 within the meaning of section 435 of the Companies Act 2006. The 2016 statutory accounts have not been finalised but this preliminary announcement has been prepared by the Directors based on the results and position which they expect will be reflected in the statutory accounts. The comparative information in respect of the year ended 31 December 2015 has been derived from the audited statutory accounts for the year ended on that date upon which an unmodified audit opinion was expressed and which did not contain a statement under section 498 (2) or (3) of the Companies Act 2006. The audited accounts will be posted to all shareholders in due course and will be available on the Company's website. A further announcement will be made at that time.

2 Basis of preparation

The Group financial statements have been prepared by the Directors in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards as adopted by the European Union on the basis of the accounting policies adopted for the year ended 31 December 2016, that will be set out in the Company's Annual Report and Accounts, and as previously disclosed in the Company's Annual Report and Accounts for the year ended 31 December 2015.

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with IFRS requires management to make judgments, estimates and assumptions that affect the application of policies and reported amounts of assets and liabilities, income and expenses. The estimates and associated assumptions are based on historical experience and various other factors that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances, the results of which form the basis of making the judgments about carrying values of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. Actual results may differ from these estimates.

The estimates and underlying assumptions are reviewed on an ongoing basis. Revisions to accounting estimates are recognised in the period in which the estimate is revised if the revision affects only that period, or in the period of the revision and future periods if the revision affects both current and future periods.

3 Exceptional expenses

4 Non-recurring administrative expenses

The non recurring expenses include specific payroll and office costs that were incurred to the point that they were terminated as part of the restructuring exercise. These have been identified and separated to show the impact of the restructuring in the prior year.

5 Basic and diluted earnings per share