Final Results
County Contact Centres PLC
09 August 2005
County Contact Centres PLC
CHAIRMAN'S STATEMENT
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2005
2005 2004
£ £
Turnover 2,619,343 1,735,475
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Loss on ordinary activities before taxation (114,757) (177,681)
========== =========
At December 2004 we reported a small profit for the first six months of this
year as well as the opening of a call centre in Romania. However this opening
coincided with a serious fall off in traffic, which started just before
Christmas with a general business malaise in almost every sector that appeared
likely to last for some time. This gave us a difficult decision whether to hold
on and hope that traffic picked up or close the facility quickly. We decided
that the prudent approach would be closure and the use of another Romanian call
centre on an outsourced basis. This we managed to achieve with minimal
disruption to the UK business, but with regrettable closure costs.
Annual turnover has increased by £884,000, year on year, and the business
returned to profitability during the final quarter after the cessation of the
Romanian operation. However this was not sufficient to recover the Romanian loss
of £152,000.
The Group's bank remains supportive and has agreed to increase our facilities
should we have reason to need them in the future.
Our CallScripter software has had an encouraging year culminating in an
integration deal with Interactive Intelligence Inc, a NASDAQ quoted US telephone
switch manufacturer ("ININ"). This allows us to move forward into a stronger
position in the market and we delivered our first joint project to a Swiss Media
company, on the 16th March 2005. Since then we have made four presentations to
potential clients who would not have considered our proposition on a stand-
alone basis.
Having reviewed the options available to us, and concluded that the existing
space, infrastructure and location were ideal for our foreseeable business
requirements, we have concluded negotiations to remain at The Havens, Ipswich
for a further five years.
Two senior managers have been appointed directors of the Ansaback subsidiary
business. Sharon Ball becomes the Director of Call Centre Operations and Toni
Vincent becomes Sales Director. Their areas of responsibility will be for
maintaining the growth trend and managing the efficient running of the bureau
business.
We have invited Philip Dayer to join the board as a non-executive director on 1
October 2005. Philip is a qualified chartered accountant with a wealth of
experience having worked for over 30 years in the corporate advisory divisions
of a number of investment banks. He retired from Hoare Govett Limited in 2004
and will add relevant experience to the board.
Peter M Brown
Chairman
8 August 2005
BUSINESS REVIEW
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2005
Overall the Directors are pleased with the core performance of both arms of the
business. Sales have increased by 51% on the previous year and our propositions,
both in terms of call centre services and software, have been well received in
the market.
Ansaback
The current scale and diversity of the Ansaback client base now provides a
degree of stability. Seasonality and weather conditions may affect some call
centre's traffic patterns but although order lines are busy in the run up to
Christmas and then dip in January, another sector such as boiler call out work
increases through the early months of the year and it is only major public
interest events such as Wimbledon or European Football which may have a
significant impact on the pattern of traffic built up over the past three years.
Annual call centre traffic has grown by 47% in the year, although this could
have been significantly greater if we had not suffered a dip in the third
quarter telephony traffic, when activity across all sectors was suppressed.
No single area of commerce dominates our client base although Ansaback remains
particularly active in the Direct Response TV arena where our in-house
CallScripter software provides commercial advantages. This looks likely to be an
area that will continue improving with the service being further developed to
ensure that we remain first choice for our clients.
Our success as "the Call Centre's Call Centre", where other call centres
overflow to Ansaback either when they are closed or when they have staffing
problems, has seen annual sales double, which has been a key factor in our
turnover rise. This impacts our staffing rotas by providing extra workload at
the weekends and evenings. We continuously monitor and review key performance
indicators to ensure that the correct call centre staffing levels are available
around the clock. We anticipate further growth in this overflow business during
the next 12 months.
CallScripter's rapid functionality enables us to add value to specific sectors,
such as immediate online credit card validation. This reduces lost opportunities
for our clients in trying to process invalid cards and then failing to reach the
caller to get a valid credit card and this ability to dynamically link with
other third party agencies looks likely to grow.
CallScripter
CallScripter had a much better year, with sales up 69% on the previous year, and
it looks likely that this will continue into the current year.
This division sells our award winning software to other call centres and we
believe that this product, written in the latest code, compares favourably with
other telephony solutions in the market place because of its simplified
functionality.
Following our attendance in September 2004 at the Call Centre Expo, the
principal showcase for suppliers to the international call centre trade, we
gained a number of new business opportunities and we have re-booked for the next
show in September 2005.
In March 2005 we concluded a commercial contract with ININ. This deal offers
CallScripter to over 1,000 existing clients and all new prospective clients, and
under the terms of the deal, Interactive Intelligence's award winning Customer
Interaction Center (R) (CIC) contact centre software is now available with a
connector to the CallScripter (R) software tool, which interactively scripts
conversations for agents.
"This worldwide initiative is the company's first OEM deal driven from outside
the U.S., reflecting our growing strength throughout Europe, the Middle East and
Africa," said Dr. Donald E. Brown, President and Chief Executive Officer for
Interactive Intelligence. "The deal fits well with our ethos of ensuring
customer choice. Rigorous testing and development of the connector mean that
resellers can confidently offer faster implementation and integration with
CallScripter, ensuring minimum disruption for the customer."
MediaLine, a tele-services operation based in Switzerland that supplies both
outbound and inbound multi-lingual call centre services, has become the first
customer to take advantage of the OEM deal. When it placed an order for a
25-seat installation of Interactive Intelligence's Customer Interaction Center
(R) (CIC) software, installed in 2005, CallScripter was included in the
functions it selected delivering scripts to agents in four different European
languages.
While the current year's figures were adversely affected by the closure of the
Romanian office giving a somewhat disappointing final result, the Directors
remain confident that the outlook for our call centre services and software
remains very positive.
William A Catchpole
8 August 2005
CONSOLIDATED PROFIT AND LOSS ACCOUNT
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2005
2005 2004
£ £
(restated)
Turnover 2,619,343 1,735,475
Cost of sales (1,635,366) (1,037,720)
----------- -----------
Gross profit 983,977 697,755
Administrative expenses (1,098,070) (867,650)
----------- -----------
Operating loss (114,093) (169,895)
Other interest receivable and similar income 12,090 3,124
Interest payable and similar charges (12,754) (10,910)
----------- -----------
Loss on ordinary activities before taxation (114,757) (177,681)
Tax on loss on ordinary activities - -
----------- -----------
Loss on ordinary activities after taxation
deducted from reserves (114,757) (177,681)
=========== ============
Basic loss per share (0.4) p (0.6) p
All of the activities of the group are classed as continuing.
There were no recognised gains or losses for the year other than the loss
disclosed above.
The accompanying accounting policies and notes form an integral part of these
financial statements.
CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEET
AS AT 30 JUNE 2005
2005 2004
£ £
Fixed assets
Tangible assets 23,756 49,147
----------- -----------
23,756 49,147
Current assets
Debtors 482,955 455,526
Cash at bank and in hand 120,341 265,227
----------- -----------
603,296 720,753
Creditors: amounts falling due within one (427,685) (405,776)
year
----------- -----------
Net current assets 175,611 314,977
Total assets less current liabilities 199,367 364,124
Creditors: amounts falling due after more (111,667) (161,667)
than one year
----------- -----------
87,700 202,457
=========== ===========
Capital and reserves
Share capital 297,908 297,908
Share premium account 6,045,563 6,045,563
Merger reserve 18,396 18,396
Profit and loss account (6,274,167) (6,159,410)
----------- -----------
Shareholders' funds 87,700 202,457
=========== ===========
CONSOLIDATED CASH FLOW STATEMENT
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2005
2005 2004
£ £
Net cash outflow from operating activities (35,646) (176,173)
Returns on investments and servicing of finance
Interest received 12,090 3,124
Interest paid (12,754) (10,910)
----------- -----------
Net cash outflow from returns on
investments and servicing of finance (664) (7,786)
----------- -----------
Taxation - 51,499
Capital expenditure and financial investment
Purchase of fixed assets (63,166) (9,256)
Proceeds from sale of tangible fixed assets 4,590 -
----------- -----------
Net cash outflow from capital expenditure
and financial investment (58,576) (9,256)
----------- -----------
Financing
Receipt of bank loan - 150,000
Repayment of borrowings (50,000) (35,000)
----------- -----------
Net cash (outflow)/inflow from financing (50,000) 115,000
----------- -----------
Decrease in cash (144,886) (26,716)
=========== ===========
NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2005
1. BASIC LOSS PER SHARE
The calculation of the basic loss per share is based on the loss of £114,757
(2004: £177,681) attributable to ordinary shareholders divided by the weighted
average number of shares in issue during the year of 29,790,743 (2004:
29,790,743). No diluted loss per share is shown because all options are
anti-dilutive.
2. RECONCILIATION OF MOVEMENTS IN SHAREHOLDERS' FUNDS
Group
2005 2004
£ £
Shareholders' funds at 1 July 202,457 380,138
Loss for the financial year (114,757) (177,681)
----------- -----------
Shareholders' funds at 30 June 87,700 202,457
----------- -----------
3. RECONCILIATION OF NET CASH FLOW TO MOVEMENT IN NET (DEBT)/FUNDS
2005 2004
£ £
Decrease in cash in the year (144,886) (26,716)
Cash outflow/(inflow) from financing 50,000 (115,000)
----------- -----------
Change in net funds resulting from cash (94,886) (141,716)
flows
----------- -----------
Net funds at 1st July 2004 53,560 195,276
Movement in net funds in the year (94,886) (141,716)
----------- -----------
Net (debt)/funds at 30th June 2005 (41,326) 53,560
=========== ===========
4. ANALYSIS OF CHANGES IN NET (DEBT)/FUNDS
At 1 At 30
July 2004 Movement June 2005
£ £ £
Cash at bank and in hand 265,227 (144,886) 120,341
Debt (211,667) 50,000 (161,667)
--------- --------- ---------
53,560 (94,886) (41,326)
========= ========= =========
5. INFORMATION
The financial information above for the years ended 30 June 2004 and 2005 in
respect of which the accounting policies are consistent, does not constitute the
statutory financial statements for those years. It is anticipated that the
annual report and accounts for the year ended 30 June 2005 will be posted to
shareholders on or around 12 August 2005. Copies will be available from the
company's registered office, Melford Court, The Havens, Ransomes Europark,
Ipswich, Suffolk IP3 9SJ.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange