16th Jul 2015 06:44
LONDON (Alliance News) - BrainJuicer Group PLC Thursday warned its pretax profit in the first six months of 2015 will be around 25% lower year-on-year due to one-off cost and rising costs but said it is still confident of hitting its full year expectations.
The online market research company said overheads grew faster than revenue in the first half, in part due to the amount of staff increasing by 10%, including the appointment of two senior managers to "spearhead" its brand strategy initiative.
The one off cost relates to its headquarters moving to larger offices in London in June, which has now been completed.
"The company has enjoyed good growth in its core quantitative products in the first half, and it does not anticipate incurring further material one-off costs in the second half.
However, revenue in the period still experienced growth of around 4% year-on-year. Sales of BrainJuicer's core quantitative products, accounting for around 90% of the business, increased by around 7%, with gross profit on these products increasing by 11%.
That was partially offset by a decline in revenue from the Juice Generation business, its qualitative research arm. The company said this was due to the company's transition to its new Brand Strategy initiative.
"Our two main markets experienced contrasting fortunes during the half. The US delivered strong growth ahead of the first half of 2014, but in the UK sales were below the first half of 2014 level. Elsewhere, Continental Europe grew strongly, and Brazil also made good progress," said BrainJuicer.
At the end of June, the company reported a cash balance of GBP5.3 million, the same level it was at December.
"The company generates the majority of its profit in the second half, and whilst revenue visibility remains typically limited the board believes the company is in a position to meet profit expectations for the full year," it said.
By Joshua Warner; [email protected]; @JoshAlliance
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