Toople Plc (LON: TOOP), a provider of bespoke telecom services to UK SMEs, has today provided the following update on trading. Since the Company settled its outstanding debt after its recent private placing, it has seen material growth across all operational metrics
Growth in customer acquisition has continued to accelerate rapidly since the half year end and the Board is pleased to announce that Toople received over 900 new orders in April 2019 and over 1,000 orders in May. Order numbers in May 2019 were 3.5 times those achieved in May 2018, representing 250% growth year on year. This growth trajectory continued into June with over 1,100 orders from over 800 new customers received. Toople is now seeing over 800 new customers placing orders every month.
The contract value of new customers signed in May 2019 amounts to revenue in excess of £500,000 for Toople over a 24 month period. The Board also expects to see continued growth in total contract value for June driven by order volume growth as well as material growth in superfast fibre orders which deliver higher revenue and gross profit.
As previously announced the Company has invested in creating an in-house sales and marketing channel and this, coupled with its digital marketing strategy, is driving the large number of new customer enquiries, many of which are received after 8 p.m. on weekdays and over weekends.
To help maximise these new customer enquiries, Toople has recently established a sales centre in Durban, South Africa. SME business owners typically respond best to the Company’s digital marketing activities when they have finished work for the day and they are able to communicate with live sales agents on their desktops, mobiles or tablets. The Durban operation will significantly extend operating hours so that Toople can communicate as soon as enquiries are received. The Board believes the investment in a second sales centre will drive further lead conversion, which will result in a lower overall cost per customer.
Commenting, Andy Hollingworth, CEO at Toople plc said:
“We are delighted to report that our sector of the UK SME telecom services market continues to grow rapidly. Our continued success has resulted in us becoming a major disruptor and provides further proof of our sales strategy. We continue to generate more leads than ever before and with the establishment of a presence in Durban, extending our sales hours into the evenings and weekends, we are now able to convert more of those leads and at a faster rate. These initiatives will deliver a lower overall cost per customer acquisition as a result of the maturing focus of our own digital marketing campaigns without any increase in our marketing capex.
“When you combine this operational success with the recent repayment of our debt, and consider the recent M&A activity at attractive valuations in our sector, we believe that the business is currently in a very good place.”
