2nd Dec 2021 16:27
(Alliance News) - Eckoh PLC on Thursday reported a fall in both earnings and revenue in disappointing interim results.
For the six months ended 30 September, the Hertfordshire-based secure payment and customer contact solutions provider reported that revenue decreased by around 6% to GBP14.7 million from GBP15.7 million in the same period the previous year.
Pretax profit also fell, down nearly 6% to GBP2.4 million from GBP2.5 million a year earlier.
Likewise, the company saw its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation fall 17% to GBP3.5 million from GBP4.2 million in the same period of 2020.
Revenue in the UK, which represents 62% of total revenue, decreased by 2.6% to GBP9.2 million from GBP9.4 million the previous year. US revenue, which represents the remaining 38%, was down by 11% to GBP5.6 million from GBP6.3 million.
The company cited "lingering challenges from the impact of the pandemic" for the falls but stated it retains "significant confidence" for the current financial year, expecting "double digit revenue and profit growth" to return.
Chief Executive Nik Philpot said: "The last 18 months have highlighted the resilience of our business and we have used this period as an opportunity to make structural and strategic changes to our operations that will give us an even stronger platform for future, profitable growth.
"We have successfully concluded the planned exit from our third-party support activity, meaningfully reduced direct costs by further optimising our operations, and continued to progress in enhancing our secure payments offering and extending the reach of our SaaS Cloud proposition.
"With clear signs that our UK business is now very much in recovery, set alongside the exciting US secure payments market opportunity that is now expanding via the Cloud into a truly global proposition, the future looks bright for Eckoh to return to stronger growth next year and beyond, notwithstanding any further Covid developments."
Shares were down 4.2% at 57.00 pence on Thursday in London.
By Heather Rydings; [email protected]
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