In its Q2 results published today (1 December), the group revealed revenue increases of 12% on the same period last year, from £71.3m to £79.9m, while gross profit increased 18.2% to £17.9m, 22.4% of gross revenue. Non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA was up 21.6% to £3.3m (2016: £2.7m), an improvement on Q1's figure.
Chief executive Robert MacMillan said it had been an “exciting quarter”, in which the group had recapitalised in order to finance the acquisition of the Netherlands-based PostNL Print Management (PPM), which was completed on 1 November. The results do not reflect the impact of the acquisition.
“Our recapitalisation allowed us to quickly react to a market opportunity and acquire a regional business, expanding our position in Europe. Our organic growth continues to exceed our expectations; we are pleased by our results,” said MacMillan.
The recapitalisation was funded by Pricoa Capital Group, with HH Global head of marketing and sales operations Ashley Haigh telling PrintWeek that the move had “enhanced the equity of the guys that run the business”.
“Robert MacMillan still has the majority stake but the wider management team now have more equity in the business, which is great in terms of accountability and control,” he said.
Haigh highlighted the early success of the PPM acquisition and also put the quarter’s successes down to an upsurge in work from existing clients.
He added: “In Europe in particular we’ve had some really successful existing clients in the last quarter, we haven’t onboarded that many new clients but really the growth has come from our existing client base, selling more services to the clients, and rolling out services into new regions as well.”
Earlier this week, Leatherhead-headquartered HH Global scooped a prize at the Amazon Growing Business Awards, winning in the ‘Amazon Pay Growing Business of the Year: Larger Company’ category, beating off competition from the likes of Acturis Group and Turtle Bay restaurant. Previous winners include Just Eat, Zoopla and Betfair.
After entering two months ago and finding out about the nomination last month, Haigh said that the team had not gone to the ceremony expecting to win.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a surprise though because we’ve had some fantastic growth over the last 18 months, so we felt that In terms of being a growing business, especially in a tough market, we felt we had a really compelling story and that’s another reason we thought it was worth it to enter.”
