2005: a year that laid the ground work for expansion in Europe and the acceleration of sales growth
Noisy-le-Grand - February 20th 2006 - Staff&Line is reporting 2005 sales (on fiscal year ending 31/12/05) of nearly €7,000k, at €6,762k compared to €6,715k the previous year.
In a difficult IT investment environment, the company has reason to be satisfied:
- the share of software licenses in total sales grew by 12%;
- following the launching in September 2004, sales of the new “full web” offering, EasyVista, the only third-generation product on its market, grew sharply bringing its share of 2005 license sales to 68% compared to 25% in 2004. This figure reflects the market’s very warm reception of this particularly innovative product;
- the share of maintenance sales remains stable; the share of services sales declined slightly, given a one-off base effect from the preceding year;
2005 : a year of transition to growth in 2006
In 2005 the company succeeded in the following areas:
- it imposed its new EasyVista offering on the market; by winning numerous significant projects, Staff&Line was able to impose its new product, EasyVista, and overcome the usual wait-and-see attitude of clients at the launching of a new product;
- it expanded sales on the most buoyant segment, medium-sized organisations, which saw its share of company sales rise from to 33% in 2005 from 20% the preceding year, this target marketing is directed at ASPs and IT outsourcers, two high-leverage distribution channels; the share of overall shares realised with IT outsourcers, thus, rose to 15% from 3% previously;
- it actively laid the groundwork for its European expansion, by its listing on Alternext last October 2005, by bolstering its teams with international profiles and by localising its EasyVista offering in five European languages.
2006 : projected 50% sales growth, European expansion and improved profitability.
Staff&Line fuelled its European expansion with the purchase of SIGHT International announced in January 2006. This acquisition enables Staff&Line to immediately penetrate three high-potential markets (Portugal, Spain and Italy), which are less competitive than the French market.
Staff&Line is basing its forecast of 50% sales growth in 2006 on:
- the acceleration of sales fuelled by the migration of clients of the product’s previous generation (ACTIMA) to the new one (EasyVista);
- the launching of major tender bids, initially set for 2005, carried over to 2006;
- the consolidation of SIGHT International and the development of EasyVista sales on the Portuguese, Spanish and Italian markets.
The growth of software sales and the emergence of the IT outsourcer and ASP segments, two high-leverage distribution channels, will power improvement in net profitability (11% on FY2004) even after accounting for the consolidation of SIGHT International.
