SpaceandPeople shares (LON: SAL) have fallen by almost 25% as the group revealed losses for the first half of the year.
The retail, promotional, and brand experience specialist shared interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2020 where net revenue plunged 72% to £1.1m.
SpaceandPeople felt “profound” effects from the lockdown and the continuing restrictions and economic climate. During the lockdown, the group said almost all activities stopped and as a result, all bookings for that period were canceled or postponed. For three months, SpaceandPeople recorded virtually no revenue.
Nancy Cullen, the group’s chief executive, said: “As you would expect, 2020 has been a very challenging year for the Group so far. The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted all areas of our business in every territory we operate.
“The challenge to our staff, clients, promoters and operators has been enormous and I am extremely grateful to them all for their help, resilience and understanding. I would have liked for my first report as CEO to have been during more normal times, however, I am proud of how the Group has coped with the challenges it has faced and I look forward to better times in the future.”
Since the lockdown enforced in March, the German arm of the business is now almost back to normal levels of trading. However in the UK, restrictions on media budgets and nervousness about running activations whilst social distancing needs to be maintained have led to activity cancellation and have had “a strong depressive effect on the brand business.”
Cullen added on the outlook of the business: “As I write this, Covid-19 cases in the UK are on the rise again and local restrictions are being put in place in many areas of the country. Our industry is slowly recovering, but is by no means back to normal.
“When we forecast the outlook for our business earlier this year, we assumed scenarios where there were further lockdowns. Although this would be extremely unwelcome news for us, we are confident that we will be able to trade through such events and emerge in a position to take advantage of the recovery. We have good cash headroom, are streamlined and very focused on achieving results and seeing the grass roots of recovery in bookings from 2021 onwards.”
SpaceandPeople shares (LON: SAL) are currently trading -13.98% at 4,00 (0913GMT).