LONDON (Alliance News) - Photo-Me International PLC on Monday said its profit dropped in the first half of its current financial year due to the lower machine sales in the UK.
The stock was down 11% on Monday at 95.00 pence a share.
The photo booth operator said pretax profit declined 13% to GBP26.0 million in the six months to the end of October from GBP32.9 million reported for the same period a year earlier, as revenue slipped to GBP119.8 million from GBP122.2 million.
The company said revenue was hurt by restructuring in Photo-Me Retail, which resulted in GBP5.3 million reduction in revenue. Excluding that, underlying revenue was up 2.5%.
Expansion of laundry operations remained a key growth driver, the company highlighted, with revenue from Revolution machines up 29% to GBP13.9 million, with an average of 50 new machines installed each month, mainly in Continental Europe.
Revenue from Identification was up by 1.0% to GBP79.1 million. The company said it now has more than 10,000 photo booths connected to government organisations for the secure upload of photo ID.
Revenue from Kiosks, however, fell by 27% to GBP6.6 million, as a result of the removal of machines located in shops which were closed.
Meanwhile, first-half pretax profit took a hit from lower B2B revenue and machine sales activity, especially in the UK, Photo-Me noted.
Photo-Me declared an interim dividend of 3.71 pence a share, unchanged year-on-year.
"In the last six months, the expansion of Laundry operations and deployment of photo booth identification solutions continued in line with our plan," said Chief Executive Serge Crasnianski.
Looking ahead, the company said it expects to meet its annual guidance, with pretax profit of GBP44 million. This represents a 12% decrease year-on-year from GBP50.2 million reported in financial 2018.
"The group's ability to meet guidance remains subject to the economic environment, foreign exchange movements and consumer sentiment, which could affect performance," added Crasnianski.
