SpaceandPeople shares soar after contracts boost

City Editor

Tuesday 11 September 2012

SHARES in SpaceandPeople soared 10.5% after the company, which sells advertising and marketing space in shopping centres, unveiled a rise in revenues and sales, and said additional contracts allowed it to increase the workforce at its Glasgow headquarters by 15%.

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TIM SHARP CITY EDITOR

SpaceandPeople's chief executive, Matthew Bending, told The Herald he has recruited six people in the past six months to take employee numbers in Glasgow to 45.

They have been hired to support new deals selling space in properties owned by real estate giants Land Securities and Capital Shopping Centres and to cater to an increased client demand for research.

Net revenue for the six months to June 30 increased by 20% to £5.2 million, compared with the first half of 2011. Pre-tax profit was £382,000, against £14,000 a year ago.Mr Bending told The Herald that the company is on a drive to boost takings from existing space. The company's reach extends from Inverness Retail Park in the Highlands to West Cornwall Shopping Centre in south-west England. "Before we recruit any more venues it is about selling what stock we have at a higher price," he said. "That has been gaining momentum as more and more brands, both local and national, understand what experiential marketing can do."Mr Bending, a former marketing manager for the Thistles Shopping Centre in Stirling, said the economic downturn had led SpaceandPeople to shift its focus from clients' marketing departments, which had their budgets cut, to sales staff.This has often meant doing more business with local companies, such as car dealerships, rather than the marketing departments of national car brands."They want to know how many cars they will sell and how many test drives will be booked," he said.Mr Bending said that, in the same way companies previously combined radio and billboard advertising, increased use of digital and social media had boosted his sector as companies sought to launch new online campaigns with events giving them face-to-face contact with customers.The company is now exploring ways of providing similar services at external sites in town centres.This mirrors an approach, employed in Germany, where squares outside town halls have proved popular marketing venues.Mr Bending said SpaceandPeople is seeking accreditation from the Association of Town Centre Managers to ease its way into this sector.SpaceandPeople gets two-thirds of its revenues from the UK.Its German business doubled revenues to £575,000 in the period, and Mr Bending said he expected to overtake the UK operation in the next two years.In June the company spent £452,000 buying more shares in joint venture SpaceandPeople India, taking its stake to 62.51%SpaceandPeople's shares closed at 79p, up 7.5p.

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SpaceandPeople shares soar after contracts boost

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