AUGUST DRAFTING – pre-layout
DEAR FELLOW SHAREHOLDERS,
It is a pleasure to able to update you on the first quarter of the 2023 financial year with this summary of trading and operational highlights across the Streamline Business Group, and Shareholder items.
Internally, visibility of the financial performance of each revenue stream has increased and the entire business has a laser focus on sales targets respective to each of the four business units.
The Board are reviewing our financial progress on a quarterly basis to ensure that external
factors such as inflation, rising costs and challenging labour market are given adequate weight in our thinking and actions as we move through the rest of the year.
TRADING HIGHLIGHTS
Finance Report:
| 2023 | 2022 | |
| Revenue | 1,566,948 | 1,037,805 |
| Operating Profit | 40,887 | 96,337 |
| EBITDA | 118,145 | 184,817 |
One: Our 1st Quarter 2023 EBITDA result was $118,145 against our same quarter last year
which was $184,817. This is a 36% decline.
Two: Extra expenditure on Marketing ($35,440), IT Infrastructure Support Services
($39,745) and salary costs ($224,072), account for most of the EBITDA difference. The
expectation is that expenditure in these areas is currently at their peak and will normalise
from this point.
Three: Clearly some of the increased salary cost relates to new staff needed to support the
overall group revenue rise, which is a solid 51% growth year on year. To retain key staff, salary
increases have been necessary.
Group Rev Budget: $1,469,227
Group Rev Actual: $1,566,948
% of Budget +6.65%
Total Group Revenue year on year plus 51%
Two $500K plus months. Looking to achieve the $600K barrier now.
Admin Army
Budget $374,089 Actual $307,837 17.71% decrease.
Year on year growth 111%
Acume
Budget $ 130,582 Actual $79,517
60.89% decrease.
Year on year growth 21.03 %
Ripple
Budget $ 439371 Actual $512333 16.61% increase.
No prior period comparison available
Solutions
Budget $ 525184 Actual $667261 27.05% Increase.
No prior period comparison available.
OPERATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
The Streamline Business Group’s branding profile, driven by our marketing expert Stephanie Mather, is notiecably beginning to come together at a new level, and I encourage shareholders to review the refreshed content at https://streamlinebusinessgroup.net to gain a sense of this.
Across the group our ‘channel partner’ strategy is continuing to bear fruit, be they Accountants, ERP system providers or the more conventional sales channels like Sharp, along with healthy potential for cross-selling.
The appointment of our Global HR Manager, Nelvin Kumar sholuld provide a significant life to strengthen areas of onboarding of staff, training and career planning.
In early July Admin Army’s Founder and CEO, Irene Bennetts, was made President of the Institute of Certified New Zealand Bookkeepers (ICNZB) – a credit to her standing in the profession. Irene has also become a Chartered Member of the Institute of Directors, further adding to her credentials.
Admin Army made a great showing at the 2022 ICNZB conference in Christchurch in late July, when team member Hasheel Ram, who is located in Suva, won the Bookkeeping Employee of the Year Award. Given three of the Fiji team were finalists in the category, this was even more of an honour and a highly deserved recognition. In addition Irene and Admin Army are again a contender for a win at the NZ Virtual Assistant Awards as one of three finalists for the VA Leadership Award. The 2022 Award ceremony will take place in Hamilton on 24 September, two days after our next Board meeting.
Acume was also showcased at the 2022 ICNZB Conference – with Acume head Shane Willis and team member Jordan Redpath presenting on the topic of eInvoicing by going through the various scenarios that businesses consider when looking for an eInvoicing solution to best meet their needs.
The development of Acume continues apace with identifying and pursuing a wide spectrum of opportunities, as required in order to overcome delays and to secure a pipeline of service delivery and on-boarding of clients.
An example of Streamline Solutions versatility and responsiveness in the first quarter was the part played to support a successful campaign for Hyundai who had outsourced the task of calling 5,000 customers in the space of 10 days as a substitute for their annual field days event. This was also an example of our dedicated team fronting up during pressured times imposed by the Covid pandemic. The internal Hyundai team had a KPI of 6% conversion, Streamline managed a respectable 7%.
Our Ripple offering is is firmly focused on ensuring clients are enabled to provide a better donor experience. Ripple is now on the cusp of a more visible presence backed by the implementation of a new website platform as part of a push towards greater marketing and branding clarity, as mentioned above.
ISO ACCREDITATION
Our journey to ISO accreditation has commenced with our new CIO Jeremy Tee initially focusing on ISO 27001. These relates to the way an organisation keeps data accurate, available and accessible to approved employees. As highlighted in our shareholder communications in May, ISO Accrediation will enable some client decision-making boxes to be ticked early in the sales cycle and thus help with a quicker sales and onboarding cycle.
CEO ROLE
There is nothing more to report on the CEO role for the Group at this time. It remains a
Board Meeting item and is reviewed and discussed at every Board meeting.
SHAREHOLDER ITEMS
Shareholder Agreement and Constitution
The work on these two documents is now complete and the new constitution has been filed
in the Companies office. The Shareholder Agreement and the Constitution will simplify a
number of compliance matters, but its key deliverable will be the enablement of our share
trading window. Thank you everyone for getting this completed.
Share Trading
Our first share trading window is expected to be conducted in the week beginning the 21st of
November 2022. It will be conducted over the course of 5 business days and will follow the
release of our half year results to the end of September 2022. These are expected out by
October month end.
Existing shareholders who are looking to sell all or part of their holding will be invited to list
their shares for sale in the Orchestra platform. At this stage the platform will only be open
to existing shareholders and our global staff to participate in the trading session. Participation by staff in the business at an ownership level will be a positive step forward, and will allow us to leverage a key differentiator in the employment process.
There will be a specific communication on how the platform works that will be sent to you in
the beginning of October 2022.
Dividend Payment
Our first dividend was paid as advised on the 1st August 2022. This marked a very clear
milestone for the business.
IN SUMMARY
Against a backdrop of ongoing issues associated with Covid – which I now know from personal exzperience – this first quarter update presents a pleasing start for the 2023 financial year.
The climb ahead will continue to be steep, as it always is, with an emphasis on our execution capability and close monitoring of opportunity and risk.
Your Chair – Craig Pellett
craig@streamlinebusiness.net
m: +64 21740235p: +64 9 9091030
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DEAR STREAMLINE BUSINESS GROUP SHAREHOLDERS,
It’s hard to believe we’ve reached May 2022 already, and definitely time to provide
an overdue report to you all. Since the report you received in August 2021 – with the
milestone headline of our first million dollar quarter – you will have also received
updates associated with the Annual General Meeting – including the review copy of
AGM minutes sent to you on 17 November.
FINANCE REPORT – EBITDA RESULT – KEY POINTS TO NOTE ARE: – PRICE INCREASE – REVENUE BUDGETS
MOVING BEYOND COVID
Now that the clouds of Covid-19 are lifting, I think it’s worth repeating a statement I
made on 3 May 2020: “We don’t get to choose our crises, but we can most certainly choose
how we respond to them. That has been the guiding principle for the team’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic. We are not ones to give up and go home!”
At this time two years ago we had dubbed FY2020 as a year of ‘Setting the Stage for
Growth’ and were positioning FY2021 as a year of ‘Bouncing Back’. I’m pleased to say
that for our next phase, FY2022 is all about ‘Focused Delivery’.
THE TEAM
It’s exciting to note that we have now entered our fourth year evolving and operating as
Streamline and with it our staff numbers have just broken through 100 people – almost
evenly located in New Zealand, Fiji and India.
The growth in team size has come with challenges in maintaining our positive culture
and good communications. In March we held our first Virtual Town Hall event, hosted
by the NZ team members. This provided a way for many of the Global team to interact
with colleagues that they would not usually have had the opportunity to do. Fiji will be
hosting a Town Hall in July and India in November.
In July our new Global HR Manager Nelvin Kumar will start with us, based out of Fiji. He
will be a huge help with the considerable demands of recruitment, training and career
planning that a business our size now has.
WHAT, HOW, WHY
A key part of our future mapping emerged on 16th December 2021 when we finally
agreed on our Group’s What, How, Why. This has delivered something for everyone to
identify with, both clients and teams alike.
It is having a profound impact as we grow into and shape the business around these
statements.
CEO ROLE
The Board remains on a very considered path regarding succession planning for my
role as CEO. I signalled mid-2021 that the business needed to plan for a new CEO to
be in place before the end of 2023, so the criteria and the search has begun. I plan to
continue my association with the business as a director beyond 2023, but look forward
to handing over the CEO reigns in the not too distant future.
THE FUTURE FOR SHAREHOLDERS
The business life cycle of the Group continues to evolve. Allied to this there is an
awareness that some shareholders are looking to sell their shares and that some staff
are keen to be involved at a Shareholder level. The Board is actively looking at how to
enable this process via a willing seller / willing buyer construct.
The preferred option at present would see us using the Orchestra platform, which
maintains our share register. We envisage having two trading windows each year,
lasting for 2 weeks each. These trading windows would be preceded by a Shareholder
Communication, so that all shareholders are in possession of the same company
information related to performance and opportunity for the business. During this
trading window sellers could nominate the price they are looking for and sellers could
agree or propose an alternative.
Another update on this will follow our next board meeting on the 28th July.
PAYMENT OF A DIVIDEND
At our Board meeting on 28 April, it was agreed that in respect of the 2022 Financial
Year, a dividend of $0.005 per share be issued. Paying a dividend was regarded by a
majority of the board as a sensible way to reward shareholders, many of whom have
been on a very long journey to this point, as well as sending a very clear message that
the business is going well. We are working with our accountants Grant Thornton to put
the mechanics in place for the dividend. You can expect a further update after the July
Board meeting to advise on the specifics of the payment date.
ISO ACCREDITATION
In his new role as CIO, Jeremy Tee, is helping us move towards ISO 27001 accreditation.
This will enable some client decision-making boxes to be ticked early in the sales cycle
and thus help with a quicker sales and onboarding cycle.
IN SUMMARY
As you can see there is a lot going on. As the business navigates its way into 2023 and
beyond, the Board and I are genuinely excited about the opportunities we can see
ahead for the Group.
There will be turbulence and risks to navigate as there always are, be that in terms of
resourcing, an inflationary environment or the impacts of global unknowns such as the
Russia / Ukraine war. As with our path through the Covid-19 pandemic we believe we
have the necessary resilience and a firm direction to bring further growth and success.
The next Board meeting is scheduled for Thursday 28 July and the date set for this
year’s AGM is Thursday 22 September. If you have not received your AGM invitation
please let me know.
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