Grafenia plc reports operating loss and decline of print sales

Grafenia plc, which owns brands such as web design tool Brambl and online trade printer Marqetspace, has reported a six-figure loss for the half year ending September 30.

The Manchester-based firm made an operating loss of approximately £104k from continuing operations, in comparison to an operating profit of £169k during the same period in 2014.

Turnover, meanwhile, saw a year-on-year drop of 3.6% at £5.28m, while EBITDA from continuing operations fell by 30.6% to around £680k.

Overall print revenues stood at £4.56m, a year-on-year decrease of around £270k.

In an official statement, Grafenia plc chairman Les Wheatley and acting CEO Peter Gunning said: “Since the interim period we have continued to see a decline in sales through our traditional printing.com franchise network.

“We aim to reverse this trend through recently launched additional marketing and operational support.”

They added: “Marqetspace continues to show promise and our objective is to grow the number of trading partners we have and assist their entry into the growing digital textiles market, with our new ink on fabric range.”

The firm is also now looking to grow its Brambl brand. The drag-and-drop web design tool launched on September 1 and, since the end of the interim period, added 27 subscribers to its existing 43.

The company statement continued: “It is anticipated that earnings for the current year will be second half weighted, as expected, in line with previous years and in line with management expectations.”