23-11-2004 - Printing.com - Growth Company Investor
Printing.com, which moved up from OFEX over the summer, laid out some pretty emphatic numbers for the half ending 10 October. Profit before tax sparked up by 151% to GBP 631,000, on turnover lifted 17% to GBP GBP5.5m - fully diluted earnings per share romped 157% higher to 1.08p. Also encouraging was the 40% hike in total retail sales - the company's estimate of the retail sales value of all Printing.com transactions - to GBP 7.5m. At half time, there were 83 outlets up and running, up from 60 the year before, and made up of 25 Printing.com stores and 58 bolt-on franchise stores.Tony Rafferty, chief executive, is aiming for 175 outlets by September 2005, and Printing.com has 13 further stores contracted. Printing.com offers its customers a range of products like leaflets, letterheads, and business cards. Unlike rivals however, its stores and franchises don't depend on any printing equipment on location. Instead, all its printing equipment is based at a centralised production hub at head office in Manchester, where Rafferty insists there is spare capacity for now. 'We're about volume growth and we have the capacity.'