Pci-pal Regulatory News (PCIP)

13 Aug 2007 07:00

County Contact Centres PLC13 August 2007 COUNTY CONTACT CENTRES PLC FINAL RESULTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30th JUNE 2007 CHAIRMAN'S STATEMENT Operational Highlights • Profit before tax increased by 78% • Profit before tax of £304,861 compared to a previous year profit of £171,417 • Turnover increased by 22% to £3,572,059 • Closing cash balance of £413,890 at 30th June 2007 compared to £299,892 at 30th June 2006 • New international sales of CallScripter software Statement Building on the previous year's performance, we have once again seen significantprogress with continued growth in both sales and profitability. Each part of theGroup has contributed to this success. Ansaback's growth in Direct ResponseTelevision Advertising (DRTV), Accident Management and the Eco Repair market hasbeen impressive and CallScripter achieved a 58% increase in sales. As a resultthe Group has declared record profits. The Market The Ansaback market will continue to grow as the frenetic effort to maximisereturns on advertising and promotion continues. The outlook for the bureaucontact centre is good. One of our key strengths is our ability to providerapidly a bespoke service to discerning clients requiring a bureau facility. Last year we reported that CallScripter software had broadened its channels tomarket and as a result we have seen an increase in orders both domestically andinternationally. One telecommunication company, Interactive Intelligence Inc.(ININ) distributes a version of CallScripter under the OEM (Original EquipmentManufacturer) brand of EasyScripter. The first year's results have beenencouraging and we look forward to ININ increasing this performance in 07/08. Weare proposing to capitalise on this current momentum by recruiting supplementarysales staff and increasing promotional activity over the next twelve months. Financial During the year the Company decided to reorganise its capital and held anExtraordinary General Meeting in June to obtain shareholder approval. Followingsubsequent court proceedings the capital re-organisation became effective 6thAugust 2007. All of the costs of the capital re-organisation have been chargedto the Profit and Loss account in the year. This reorganisation has a positiveeffect on both the Group and Company Balance Sheets, as well as paving the wayto allowing the Company to pay dividends in the future if the Board consider itappropriate to do so. Whilst the published statements reflect the position at30th June 2007 (prior to the re-organisation), the table below illustrates theeffect that the capital reorganisation would have made had it taken place in the2006/07 fiscal year. As can be seen the overall position remains unchanged, butwe would have reflected a positive balance on the Profit and Loss Account. Before After £ £ Called up share capital 297,908 297,908Share premium account 6,045,563 -Profit and loss account (5,895,865) 149,698 ---- ----Shareholders' funds 447,606 447,606 ---- ---- In December 2006 the Group reached a settlement with the Inland Revenue inrelation to the June 2002 investigation into the Research and Developmentclaims, with the Group repaying £15,000. The associated costs for professionaladvice on this matter have been charged to the profit and loss account for theyear ended 30th June 2007 but it should be noted that these costs were incurredover a number of years. People After 5 years as Chairman, Peter Brown stepped down in October 2006 and I tookover the chair. Peter remains on the Board as a non-executive. During the year James Thorpe was appointed Software Development Director of theCallScripter (UK) Limited subsidiary, continuing our emphasis of promoting fromwithin. The Board would like to record its thanks to the staff for their hard work,which has produced another good year for the Group. Prospects Our two business sectors are in growing markets. Accordingly, we look forward tothe future with confidence. We continue, however, to be alert to opportunitiesto enhance shareholder value through organic growth, acquisition andpartnerships. Philip Dayer 10th August 2007 BUSINESS REVIEW Ansaback It has been a good year for Ansaback with a steady rise in turnover. The run up to Christmas was very busy with calls from our DRTV clients showing amarked increase. Analysis of this sector led to the launch of a new service -Ansaback Plus. All operators within this new section are trained sales agentswho seek to increase our client's profitability by maximising salesopportunities during the call. Additionally, we have recruited a BusinessDevelopment Manager to specifically target the DRTV business sector and developthe Ansaback Plus service. We exhibited at the ERA (Electronic RetailersAssociation) in Monte Carlo in June and have strong leads to pursue, which weare confident will bring new business in the next financial year. The ability of modern telephone technology to switch calls seamlessly within thenetwork provides both our, and other call centre's, clients with the option ofhaving more than one call centre working for them. This process of maximisingthe returns and responsiveness to media advertising remains a strong drivingforce, as a client advertising on a television shopping channel will be lookingfor an answer response rate as near to 100% as possible. This high level canonly be achieved by using modern systems, as well as multiple call centres. Thenumber of call centre partners using Ansaback for overflow, nighttime andweekend work has increased from 13 to 20 over the last 12 months. One potentialrisk with this type of call centre overflow business is that as the partner callcentre grows they invest in their own infrastructure, expand and as a resulttake calls back in-house. We continue to provide clients with detailed data regarding call durations andoutcomes, using our in-house developed CallScripter software package. Scriptsare designed in a manner reflecting the client businesses, ensuring that theagent delivery reflects the culture of the client's organisation. Ansaback ismonitored and controlled on the actual and predicted billable minutes and thisKey Performance Indicator, as well as the number of agent call minutes per hour,is reviewed on a daily basis to ensure the correct levels of staff efficiencieswithin the call centre. We also scrutinise our Grade of Service and Percentageof Calls Answered to maintain our contracted Service Level Agreements ofanswering 80% of calls presented within 20 seconds. Out of hours telephone/broadband fault repair logging (Eco Repair) is anotherarea, which we have developed over the period. Again this requires slightly morespecialist agent knowledge and we currently have fifteen clients that use ourfault logging service. In September we gained a new contract, which has become one of our largerclients, handling accident reporting calls for bus drivers and follow upoutbound calls to third parties to arrange vehicle repair. This has proved to bea very worthwhile market and is one that we will be exploring further. We continue to see growth across all business sectors including a web baseddesigner clothing retailer who has recently opened a US operation. As a resultof this we have seen an increase in calls late at night. We have decided to invest in a 'state of the art' modern telephone switch overthe next 6 months. This new switch will include fail-over systems to furtherincrease our business continuity / disaster recovery readiness whilst alsoenabling us to offer additional services to clients. Looking at other risks, to lower our susceptibility to power outages, we have astandby generator in case of power cuts, while our main computer systems havebeen upgraded to improve their resilience and minimise any down-time should aproblem arise. CallScripter The CallScripter division had a very encouraging year securing numerouscontracts within its traditional market as well as expanding its internationaldirect customer base. New territories included Columbia, Australia & Canada. Our OEM agreement with ININ continues to generate new revenues and theEasyScripter application now boasts over 1,500 installed licences coveringEurope, North America, South Africa & Australia. Being part of the ININ solutionenables us to be involved in larger projects as well as opening up additionalopportunities through their established reseller base. One example is ourcurrent largest customer who runs 450 concurrent licences over two locations inthe Netherlands & Suriname further highlighting CallScripter's scalability &flexibility. Another project of note has been the adoption of EasyScripter by Schipol airportin Amsterdam, who use the system to manage emergency ambulance call outprocedures as well as building maintenance roof access control. CallScripter Version 4 was released in Quarter 1, 2007. The product has beengiven a fresh new look and feel with specific improvements to the Outboundmodule, an encryption engine as part of compliance with the new PCI (CreditCard) Guidelines and a real-time .NET reporting dashboard. This improvedfunctionality has already allowed us to secure new business. To coincide with the release of Version 4, the opportunity was taken to revampthe marketing of the product. New sales brochures have been produced as well asa revitalised website. Totally rewritten, the website now includes a supportsection and knowledge base area for existing clients. In October 2006 we exhibited at our 6th Call Centre Expo, the principal UKshowcase for suppliers to the call centre trade, which attracts both a domesticand international audience looking for the latest offerings. During the year wewere also invited as guests to the ININ EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Asia)conference held in Barcelona. Here we presented the latest EasyScripter versionto a wide range of ININ distributors. The risks to the CallScripter division continue to be in the ability of ourinternal sales team and the partner resellers to achieve market penetration. Weare confident that the sales targets can be achieved. Social Responsibilities & Green Initiatives We are delighted to report that we recently achieved the Investors in Peopleaward showing our commitment to our staff, who, as a service industry, are ourkey asset. Investors in People is a prestigious award designed to recognisecompanies with a real commitment to their work force. While we were convincedthat we had most of the policies in place this proved to be a very inspiring andmotivating exercise for the whole Company. This year the staff voted to adopt Neuroblastoma (which helps fight childhoodcancer) as our 'Charity of the Year'. Various events and raffles have beenorganised to support this worthy cause over the last 12 months including aregular 'dress-down' day on the last Friday of each month. During November we donated 20 of our older computers to the 'Computers forAfrica' campaign. The Company has also been the lead player working with five other localbusinesses on the Europark campaigning for a bus shelter on the main road behindour offices. We have jointly raised donations and will be erecting aweatherproof bus shelter to help encourage staff to use public transport. Looking ahead Both sides of our business will continue to push forward with excitingprospects. Ansaback will be focusing on further development of the Ansaback Plus andtelephone fault logging services - areas where we feel we have a unique sellingpoint, while CallScripter will continue to target new revenue streams withreselling partners and other software manufacturers as well as increasing theexisting revenue streams from both the OEM and direct sales. Overall we expect to perform well in the coming year. William A Catchpole 10th August 2007 CONSOLIDATED PROFIT AND LOSS ACCOUNTFOR THE YEAR ENDED 30th JUNE 2007 2007 2006 £ £ Turnover 3,572,059 2,921,879 Cost of sales (2,014,931) (1,682,012) ---- ----Gross profit 1,557,128 1,239,867 Administrative expenses (1,254,193) (1,066,953) ---- ----Operating profit 302,935 172,914 Other interest receivableand similar income 10,962 8,951 Interest payableand similar charges (9,036) (10,448) ---- ----Profit on ordinaryactivities before taxation 304,861 171,417 Tax on profit on ordinary activities 61,000 - ---- ----Profit on ordinary activitiesafter taxation transferredto reserves 365,861 171,417 Basic and diluted earnings per share 1.2 p 0.6 p All of the activities of the Group are classed as continuing. There were no recognised gains or losses for the year other than the profitdisclosed above. The accompanying accounting policies and notes form an integral part of thesefinancial statements. CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEET AS AT 30th JUNE 2007 2007 2006 £ £ Fixed assets Tangible assets 79,727 40,317 79,727 40,317Current assets Debtors 736,243 490,444 Cash at bank and in hand 413,890 299,892 1,150,133 790,336 Creditors: amounts falling due withinone year (570,318) (492,958) Net current assets 579,815 297,378 Total assets less current liabilities 659,542 337,695 Creditors: amounts falling due after morethan one year (34,564) (78,578) 624,978 259,117 Capital and reserves Share capital 297,908 297,908 Share premium account 6,045,563 6,045,563 Merger reserve 18,396 18,396 Profit and loss account (5,736,889) (6,102,750) Shareholders' funds 624,978 259,117 The accompanying accounting policies and notes form an integral part of thesefinancial statements. COMPANY BALANCE SHEET AS AT 30th JUNE 2007 2007 2006 £ £ Fixed assets Investments 201,609 201,609 201,609 201,609 Current assets Debtors 337,671 128,102 337,671 128,102 Creditors: amounts falling due within oneyear (76,674) (59,400) Net current assets 260,997 68,702 Total assets less current liabilities 462,606 270,311 Creditors: amounts falling due after morethan one year (15,000) (61,667) 447,606 208,644 Capital and reserves Share capital 297,908 297,908 Share premium account 6,045,563 6,045,563 Profit and loss account (5,895,865) (6,134,827) Shareholders' funds 447,606 208,644 The accompanying accounting policies and notes form an integral part of thesefinancial statements. CONSOLIDATED CASH FLOW STATEMENT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30th JUNE 2007 2007 2006 £ £ Net cash inflow from operating activities 241,546 249,915 Returns on investments andservicing of finance Interest received 10,962 8,951 Interest paid (6,233) (9,831) Interest element of finance leases (2,803) (617) Net cash inflow/(outflow)from returns on investments and servicing of finance 1,926 (1,497) Taxation (15,000) - Capital expenditureand financial investment Purchase of tangible fixed assets (51,250) (21,681) Proceeds from sale of tangible fixed assets - 5,350 Net cash outflow from capitalexpenditure and financial investment (51,250) (16,331) Financing Repayment of borrowings (50,000) (50,000) Capital element of finance leases (13,224) (2,536) Net cash outflow from financing (63,224) (52,536) Increase in cash 113,998 179,551 1. BASIC PROFIT PER SHARE The calculation of the basic profit per share is based on the profit of £365,861(2006: £171,417) attributable to ordinary shareholders divided by the weightedaverage number of shares in issue during the year of 29,790,743 (2006:29,790,743). No diluted profit per share is shown because all options arenon-dilutive. 2. RECONCILIATION OF MOVEMENTS IN SHAREHOLDERS' FUNDS Group 2007 2006 £ £ Shareholders' funds at 1st July 2006 259,117 87,700 Profit for the financial year 365,861 171,417 Shareholders' funds at 30th June 2007 624,978 259,117 3. NET CASH INFLOW FROM OPERATING ACTIVITIES 2007 2006 £ £ Operating profit 302,935 172,914 Depreciation 36,252 33,527 Profit on disposal of fixed assets - (5,350) Increase in debtors (169,799) (7,489) Increase in creditors 72,158 56,313 Net cash inflow from operating activities 241,546 249,915 4. RECONCILIATION OF NET CASH FLOW TO MOVEMENT IN NET FUNDS 2007 2006 £ £ Increase in cash in the year 113,998 179,551 Cash outflow from financing 50,000 50,000 Cash outflow from finance leases 13,224 2,536 Change in net funds resulting from cash flows 177,222 232,087 New finance leases (24,412) (28,407) Movement in net funds in the period 152,810 203,680 Net funds/(debt) at 1st July 2006 162,354 (41,326) Movement in net funds in the year 152,810 203,680 Net funds at 30th June 2007 315,164 162,354 5. ANALYSIS OF CHANGES IN NET (DEBT)/FUNDS At 1st Other At 30th Jul-06 Movement Changes Jun-07 £ £ £ £ Cash at bank and in hand 299,892 113,998 - 413,890 Debt (111,667) 50,000 - (61,667) Finance leases (25,871) 13,224 (24,412) (37,059) 162,354 177,222 (24,412) 315,164 6. The financial information above for the years ended 30 June 2006 and 2007in respect of which the accounting policies are consistent, does not constitutethe statutory financial statements for those years. It is anticipated that theannual report and accounts for the year ended 30 June 2007 will be posted toshareholders on or around 16 August 2007. Copies will be available from thecompany's registered office, Melford Court, The Havens, Ransomes Europark,Ipswich, Suffolk IP3 9SJ. For further information, please contact: Brewin Dolphin Securities Limited (NOMAD) Tel: 0845 270 8600 Richard Evans ENDS This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange