The Aim-listed PLC sold its print hub to PFI after the year-end date of 31 March, but has separated it out from the results to show the picture for the continuing business.
Overall sales, including print production, were up 27% at £12.36m.
Sales on its continuing software business rose by 28.5% to £8.92m.
The overall business was back in the black at the EBITDA level, although EBITDA margins on the continuing operations slipped from 3.45% to 1.9%.
The bottom line loss on continuing operations reduced from £974,000 to £559,000.
“We are happy to announce that the businesses that we are keeping – first and foremost Nettl Systems – are more profitable and simpler than the operations we sold,” Mohr stated.
“Gladly, it looks like we turned the corner in operating performance during the last fiscal year as you can see in the results we are announcing in this report. We sincerely hope that our renewed focus on our core competency – systems and software – will help our partners to scale and thrive as exhibitions open up and the world goes back to normal,” Mohr stated.
Mohr said that acting CEO Gavin Cockerill, who took over from Peter Gunning in May, would lead the “fission” of the reshaped organisation, with a new operating model to be devised over the coming months focused on systems and software.
Cockerill said Grafenia’s strategy essential remained the same: “Build, buy and license. We build performance in our company-owned Nettl locations. We buy businesses to extend our scale, capability and resilience. And we license our knowhow and systems to others.”
It is partnering “seamlessly” with Works Makers for production, with the now PFI-owned Works Manchester being its largest partner.
Cockerill also commented on the cost rises faced by the business across the board.
“Paper has increased by 30%-50%, due to increased distribution costs, shortages and rising energy prices. We have increased our prices three times in 2022 to reflect this. Fuel and energy prices remain at high levels and are not helped by global events. We don't expect this to change anytime soon.”
The Nettl partner network reduced by 22, to 210 locations worldwide during the period, with Grafenia describing France as “being hit the hardest” despite an influx of new partners during the pandemic. It now has 27 partners in the US.
Printing.com locations reduced from 46 to 38, with the expectation that partners will upgrade to Nettl as business diversifies “from a reliance on print alone”.
Despite the reduction, subscription and licence fees nudged up to £2.14m (2021: £2.08m).
Online print brands including Marqetspace “remain important” and will continue with physical production via its partners.
Cockerill told Printweek that he was aware the business needed to be bigger in order to justify its PLC status and associated costs.
“Although we are more profitable, we're smaller in size. That’s why we’ve renewed our focus on scaling the PLC by way of acquisition,” he said.
“To extend our scale, capability and resilience. Our acquisition strategy is a little different today. We're refocusing our search on software businesses. We have a number of ongoing discussions with owners of businesses that meet our criteria.”
Cockerill said that plans were progressing and software acquisitions would be a large part of Grafenia’s focus for the upcoming year.
