SpaceandPeople cancels dividend after making a loss in first half

SpaceandPeople, a retail, promotional and brand experience specialist, has not offered a dividend to its shareholders for the first time during its 2005 AIM listing following a poor performance in the first half.

The company has swung from recording a profit before tax of £62,000 in the previous period to recording a loss of £174,000 in the six months to 30 June 2016.

The firm attributed this mainly to the one off costs experienced in the closure of its campaign planning business S&P+ in June 2016 as well as its need to invest further in the growth of its mobile promotions kiosk (MPK) programme in 2017. Despite a promising start in 2013 the firm decided it was no longer “prudent” to keep funding it, leading to a one off charge of £552,000. The firm currently had 75 MPKs in operation in the UK.

The group’s consolidated gross revenue also fell marginally to £11.1m in the first half from £11.3m last year. Consolidated net revenue also fell to £4.65m from £4.77m.

German promotional net revenue fell 11.1% to £544k and retail net revenue fell 13.7% to £1.07m.

The firm’s UK promotional net revenue, on the other hand, rose by 5.4% to £1.50m and. The company’s 75 Mobile Promotions Kiosks (MPKs) reported a rise in net revenue by 3.2% to £1.46m.

Despite the closure the firm is constantly updating its pipeline, according to chief executive Matthew Bending, which gives the group confidence that the firm will make a recovery in the future.

“The development of the Pop Up kiosk concept along with the continued roll-out of MPKs and the new contracts with Network Rail and British Land means that our business has replaced the old revenue streams with new products that are attractive to both existing and new venues and customers alike,” said chief executive Matthew Bending.

The company has successfully started its Network Rail contract and has commenced its kiosk pilot in France in January 2016.

Loss per share came to 2.96p compared to earnings of 0.06p in the previous period. The share price fell 29.37% to 27.90 at 1151 BST on Monday.