Park Group Plc
(“Park” or “the Group” or “the Company”)
AGM Statement & Trading Update
Park Group plc, the UK's leading multi-retailer redemption product provider to corporate and consumer markets, is today holding its Annual General Meeting at its new offices in Liverpool. The Chairman, Laura Carstensen, will make the following comments:
Trading Update
Group trading in the first five months of the current financial year has been in line with our expectations. We have seen continued growth in our Corporate business alongside a stable performance in the Christmas savings market.
As we set out in our results statement in June, we are incurring costs associated with implementing the strategic business plan, which will supress profitability this financial year. These costs relate to the transition to the new offices, as well as additional technology and marketing investment.
As shareholders will be aware Park, is a highly seasonal business with the majority of revenue reported in the second half of the year (commencing 1 October), leading to reported losses in the first half of the year, as in prior years.
Implementation of the strategic business plan
We are pleased to confirm that we relocated last week to our new fit-for-purpose offices in Chapel Street, Liverpool, where our AGM is being held today. We believe this office move will ensure we operate an integrated working culture as well as help us retain and attract talented staff.
We are making good progress on rationalising our brand architecture, which will make our products and offering easier for consumers, corporate clients and investors to understand. As part of this we have proposed changing the Company's name to Appreciate Group plc, which we believe better reflects our ambitions for the Group, for approval at today's AGM.
We continue to invest in our technology to enhance our capabilities, capacity, functionality and performance; we are busy implementing a new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, Microsoft Dynamics 365, which we selected in the Spring.
Work on our new digitally optimised product, targeting currently untapped areas of the gift voucher market, is well underway and we are encouraged by progress thus far. A further update on the product as well as a launch date is expected in the second half of the year.
Outlook
The transformation the business is undergoing will create a more robust and scalable model, putting us in a strong position for future growth. Overall, we continue to make significant strides in positioning the Group to take full advantage of the opportunities available in our market.