DATE: 20th January 2005
Business Direct Group (BDG.L), the developer and operator of the ParcelXchange intelligent locker distribution system, today provides an update on trading prior to entering its closed period. The pre-tax loss for the year ending 31 December 2004 is expected to be in line with forecasts. The Company has also reached agreement with Bank of Scotland for a £3 million lending facility to help the Company meet the demand for ParcelXchanges. This facility is made up of a £1.5m overdraft and a £1.5m revolving credit facility. On the supply side, a manufacturing agreement for the next phase of 500 ParcelXchanges has been signed, and the first units are now expected to start coming off the production line this month, slightly ahead of the previously advised schedule. At the year-end, Business Direct had an estate of approximately 195 ParcelXchanges, equating to 2,600 lockers, a significant increase on the 171 sites and 2,300 lockers in place at the end of August 2004. This has put the Company well on the way to achieving its next important milestone of having 250 sites in place, a level that represents minimum nationwide UK coverage during the first half of 2005. Certain ParcelXchanges are at 100% capacity and whilst this is exciting it is important that the manufacture and roll out of ParcelXchange continues in line with schedule in order not to slow down client acquisition. Our strategy is to have 700 ParcelXchange sites, representing 10,000 lockers across the UK. The recently announced acquisition of the Concord Businesses on 14 January 2004 has provided Business Direct with an immediate National infrastructure as well as a number of cross selling opportunities to new clients. In addition to this, Business Direct has also made significant progress in its own customer acquisition. A focused sales and marketing campaign initiated July has already produced 15 new ParcelXchange customers, including Siemens, TNT and Exel. British Gas has also completed a successful trial. Business Direct has completed the roll out of its first major client, a major mobile telecoms company, Orange on behalf of TNT, whose initial requirement is for 200 lockers. There is also an extremely encouraging pipeline, and Business Direct expects at least another 10 customers to start trading during the next three months, equating to a further 300 lockers. An estate supply agreement has also been signed with Texaco giving access to up to 1,000 forecourts allowing Business Direct to site ParcelXchanges subject to a satisfactory survey. Further estate agreements are expected to be announced in early 2005 and in response to client demand, Business Direct will start deploying ParcelXchanges in Northern Ireland during the first quarter of 2005. Further to the acquisition of the Concord business, in-house field engineers will now be used to maintain and repair ParcelXchange on a national basis rather than subcontracting the service which hitherto appeared to be the only viable option. The Company's management team has been strengthened further, in particular, Brendan Cull has been appointed as Finance Director, while Carl Wylde has moved from Sales Director to the newly created position of Estate Director, responsible for estate provisioning and for deployment of ParcelXchanges in the UK and Europe. An internal appointment has been made to replace Carl Wylde as Sales Director. Business Direct expects to be reporting its Preliminary Results for the year to 31 December 2004 on 21 March 2005. Tim Houstoun, Chief Executive, said: "I am delighted to announce that, following our successful flotation in August, much work has been done to ensure that Business Direct has the infrastructure in place to take advantage of the strong client demand that we are now seeing. We have signed a new manufacturing agreement, significant progress has been made with developing our estate, and we are confident that 2005 will see a much stronger trading performance."
For Further Information: Alison Brindley
Head of Marketing
Business Direct plc
T: +44 (0) 7962 649 629
E: alison.brindley@bdpx.com
| For Media Enquiries: Alison Brindley,
Head of Marketing, Business Direct Group plc +44 (0)7962 649 629 or +44 (0)1788 821 228. alison.brindley@bdpx.com For supporting text and image files: Rachel Parry, Marketing Executive, Business Direct Group plc +44 (0) 1788 821 235 rachel.parry@bdpx.com |
