14 June 2012
St Ives plc - Interim Management Statement
St Ives plc, the UK's leading marketing services and print group, is today
publishing its Interim Management Statement covering the period from 28 January
2012 to date.
For the eighteen week period to 1 June 2012, total sales from continuing
operations were £110 million, approximately 6% higher than for the equivalent
period in the previous financial year.
We are pleased to report that our overall performance continues to improve as
expected, driven by our Marketing Services businesses. We have experienced
further deterioration across our Print markets, as demand remains weak and
trading conditions fiercely competitive; we have taken further action to reduce
costs and continue to win and retain contracts albeit at lower prices.
Marketing Services
Incite, our recently acquired research and consultancy business, has integrated
well and early trading has been very good. We are delighted with the high
quality of the business and its people.
Our specialist retail consultancy business, Pragma, has performed well and
demand for their commercial due diligence investor services has been
particularly strong. We are planning to invest in additional headcount in this
business to grow sales further next year.
Our field marketing business, Tactical Solutions, has performed very well and
we continue to secure new business from cross selling opportunities across
their and the group's customers.
Within Data Marketing, new business performance has been strong although, due
to the general economic environment, we have experienced some reduction and
deferral of marketing spend, particularly associated with larger projects,
across the existing client base.
Print
Our Books business remains strong and we continue to win market share. Margins
are being negatively impacted by the publishing industry's shift towards
ordering a greater number of smaller print runs, a dynamic that our recent
investment in digital production is targeted to mitigate. This investment is
due to come on line within the next three months.
In our Exhibition and Events business, we have started to see some increased
activity ahead of the London Olympics, which is helping to deliver an improved
performance for the business.
Point of Sale activity levels remain strong but the very difficult conditions
being experienced in retail markets continue to drive margins down. The market
for Direct Response remains challenging but we have benefited from the closure
of our loss-making businesses that produced company reports and CD/DVD related
print and continue to seek further efficiency improvement opportunities.
Group
Our balance sheet remains strong and we expect to complete the sale of our
property in Crayford, for £3.3 million, before the financial year end. We have
three remaining surplus properties currently for sale, with a combined value of
approximately £4.0 million.
- Ends -
For further information contact:
St Ives plc 020 7928 8844
Patrick Martell, Chief Executive
Matt Armitage, Finance Director
MHP Communications 020 3128 8100
John Olsen / Ian Payne / Giles Robinson
*A Private Investor is a recipient of the information who meets all of the conditions set out below, the recipient:
Obtains access to the information in a personal capacity;
Is not required to be regulated or supervised by a body concerned with the regulation or supervision of investment or financial services;
Is not currently registered or qualified as a professional securities trader or investment adviser with any national or state exchange, regulatory authority, professional association or recognised professional body;
Does not currently act in any capacity as an investment adviser, whether or not they have at some time been qualified to do so;
Uses the information solely in relation to the management of their personal funds and not as a trader to the public or for the investment of corporate funds;
Does not distribute, republish or otherwise provide any information or derived works to any third party in any manner or use or process information or derived works for any commercial purposes.
Please note, this site uses cookies. Some of the cookies are essential for parts of the site to operate and have already been set. You may delete and block all cookies from this site, but if you do, parts of the site may not work. To find out more about the cookies used on Investegate and how you can manage them, see our Privacy and Cookie Policy
To continue using Investegate, please confirm that you are a private investor as well as agreeing to our Privacy and Cookie Policy & Terms.