SPOT Earnings Improve

Originally written by Joshua Allsopp and published at OPI

SPOT reports earnings improvement

According to OPI, UK office supplies group Spicers OfficeTeam (SPOT) revealed a mixed FY2016 in recently released financial statements for the year.

For the twelve months ended 31 December 2016, total sales fell 5% to UK£282.77 million (US$372 million). It blamed the dip in sales to tough market conditions and a conscious move away from its UK£6 million(US$7.86 million) low-margin EOS business.

However, the diversification of its product range drove organic sales higher at the OfficeTeam business.

A number of one-off non-recurring costs relating to warehouse integration and network upgrading impacted the bottom line, nonetheless operating losses narrowed to UK£551,000(US$722,000) compared to nearly £18 million in 2015.

On a positive note, the group attributed the continued turnaround of its subsidiary Spicers to the 36% improvement in EBITDA, reported as UK£8.94 million(US$11.71 million).

The group called this “satisfactory” in the face of difficult economic conditions, investment and the Spicers reorganisation which occurred in the period.

In the accompanying statement, it said the solid operational platform it had established over the past two years would allow it to accelerate the sales diversification within Spicers and the organic growth within OfficeTeam, as well as continue the group’s operational developments to enhance efficiency.