10th Dec 2019 10:41
(Alliance News) - Photo-Me International PLC on Tuesday posted higher first-half profit thanks to further growth for its Laundry business.
Shares in Photo-Me were up 3.8% at 90.13 pence in London in morning trading.
Photo-Me operates around 46,900 vending units in 18 countries, including photo booths, launderettes, and digital printing kiosks. It reported a GBP28.3 million pretax profit for the six months ended October 31, up 8.8% from GBP26.0 million a year before.
Revenue for the period rose 3.4% to GBP123.9 million from GBP119.8 million, including a 17% rise in total Laundry operations to GBP25.6 million from GBP21.9 million. Laundry operations were expanded in the year, with the average growth rate of 50 machines in operation per month for the period.
The number of Revolution laundry machines in operation was up 19% following a continued rollout in continental Europe, as well as the UK and Republic of Ireland. Within the Laundry operations, revenue from Revolution alone rose 25% to GBP17.4 million from GBP13.9 million.
Excluding the UK, revenue from the Identification business was 0.8% higher, but fell 3.3% overall to GBP76.5 million from GBP79.1 million following period of lower UK photo booth market activity.
Photo-Me explained: "The UK photo booth market was challenging due to uncertainty around the UK's exit from the EU and the government's policy to accept photos taken at home for passport identification. Together these factors resulted in lower consumer activity which impacted overall performance of this business area."
Photo-Me declared a 3.7p per share dividend, flat year-on-year.
Chief Executive Serge Crasnianski said: "The first half of the year saw robust performance despite a number of challenging headwinds. The group remains focused on further expanding our Laundry market presence across a number of the core geographies in which we operate and across our product offering, from 24/7 self-service machines and laundrettes to B2B laundry services. Our Identification business remains resilient and looking ahead, we expect to benefit from the introduction of mandatory renewal for ID cards in France from 2021 onwards. "
Photo-Me entered the self-service fresh fruit juice equipment market in April 2019 when it acquired Sempa and plans for this to become one of its key business areas.
"Our entry into the food market earlier in the year also provides the group with a new additional platform for growth and will become an important component of our future growth strategy," said Crasnianski.
"The group remains highly cash generative with GBP41.1 million of cash generated during the period, reflecting [earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation] margin improvement. The board remains confident that the group will continue to perform in line with market expectations for the current financial year," he added.
By Anna Farley; [email protected]
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