Vianet Grp Regulatory News (VNET)

15 January 2025

Vianet Group plc

("Vianet" or the "Group")

Strategic agreement with a major global brewer

Vianet Group plc (AIM: VNET), the international provider of actionable data, business insights, and payment solutions through an integrated ecosystem of connected hardware devices, software platforms and smart insights portals is pleased to announce a significant strategic data solutions contract win.

Our ongoing investment in technology and the advanced capabilities of our monitoring solutions, combined with our long-term strategic partnership with The Oxford Partnership - a leader in real-time market intelligence - has opened the door to a collaboration with one of their blue-chip clients, a global brewing industry leader (the "Brewer"). Through this agreement, we will implement Beverage Metrics innovative draught beer monitoring solution across the UK. Our state-of-the-art technology will provide detailed performance insights into their key draught brands, enabling the Brewer to effectively monitor brand performance across key activations.

This agreement represents a strong validation of Vianet's strategic innovative solutions, expanding our market share and further strengthening our relationship with The Oxford Partnership. By highlighting our commitment to product innovation and the enhanced capabilities of our offerings, it not only raises awareness but also positions us to attract increased interest from other potential clients, foster new partnerships and drive growth across our revenue streams.

The agreement includes new installations of the Group's Beverage Metrics draught beer monitoring solution, starting this financial quarter with a phased delivery program throughout the following financial year, and is expected to expand the Group's UK installation footprint by c 5% in the next 18 months. This milestone marks a significant step forward, paving the way for our continued expansion in the hospitality sector beyond the Leased & Tenanted market.

James Dickson, Chair & CEO of Vianet stated:

"This new agreement represents a strong strategic validation of our investment in Beverage Metrics and the value of our partnership approach. These collaborations are unlocking exciting commercial opportunities within the hospitality sector and beyond, combining our technological capabilities and the Oxford Partnership's analytics and AI expertise.

The phased rollout of our Beverage Metrics solution with a leading global brewer further highlights the innovation and impact of our technology, as it empowers customers to optimize performance and navigate challenging trading conditions effectively.

Combined with the encouraging progress we are making in the USA and the recent long-term contract extensions with Heineken's Star Pubs & Bars and Greene King, this milestone underscores the growing recognition of our solutions and their ability to deliver tangible value by helping customers achieve more with less."

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About Vianet

Vianet Group is a leading provider of actionable management information and business insight created through combining data from our smart Internet of Things ('IOT') solutions and external information sources.

Since Admission to AIM in 2006, the Group has grown from its core beer monitoring business both organically and through strategic acquisitions to widen its offering and develop new businesses, especially in vending telemetry and contactless payment solutions particularly for the premium coffee sector.

Servicing over three hundred customers across the world and rendering live data to our IOT platform from over 250,000 connected machines daily, Vianet is one of the largest business to business (b2b) connected solutions providers in Europe with established long-term relationships with blue chip customers and growing recurring revenues which are over 85% of our total revenues.

In our Smart Machines division, we connect a single data gathering device with its own on-board communication capability to a customer's asset or system. The device then sends data back via our IOT platform to cloud based servers. The technology was originally developed for automated retailing machines; however, the flexibility and functionality of the device means the technology can be applied to any machine which has the capability to output data. The device is also used to connect our contactless payment solution and communicate payment terms to our cloud-based payment services providers where that application is also required.

The Smart Zones division is where we connect multiple data gathering devices into one or more systems or assets with the data from those devices being communicated back to our IOT platform and cloud-based servers via a single 3G communications hub. The technology was originally developed for flow monitoring devices, temperature sensors, and asset management in drinks retailing but any data gathering device with a digital output could be connected to the communications hub where required such as gaming machines, utilities management and EPOS.

For further information, please visit www.vianetplc.com