Mind Gym to go digital after scrapping dividend

Mind Gym scrapped its final dividend after the Covid-19 crisis caused revenue to plunge, prompting the company to plan a rapid switch to digital services.

Adjusted pretax profit for the year to the end of March fell 19% to £6.6m as revenue rose 15% to £48.2m. Statutory pretax profit, including public offering costs the year before, rose 44% to £7.4m. Mind Gym paid no final dividend, causing the total annual payout to drop 63% to 0.9p a share from 2.4p a year earlier.

Mind Gym said revenue fell 16% in the last two months of its financial year after rising 22% in the first 10 months as the Covid-19 crisis grew.

The learning and development company said the downturn happened too late to reduce costs last year but that it has since required all employees to take pay cuts, work shorter hours or be furloughed. It has accelerated plans to shift its business to digital formats instead of sending coaches to help company employees face to face.

"It is for these reasons that we have decided as a board not to propose a final dividend payment for the year," the AIM-traded company said. "We believe it prudent to prioritise cash preservation at this time and to focus on investing for growth."

Mind Gym said it would recruit 40 people to work on its digital service. Digital revenue rose 21% to £14.5m last year to be 30% of income. In April and May digital services grew to be 79% of total revenue.