Sector profits

[Mel]

To get an idea for imutual's potential, I thought you'd be interested to see how a similar company is performing. Maple Syrup Media (owner of Quidco) has filed accounts to the year ending 31/7/2010. See figures below (those in brackets are for the previous year)

TURNOVER £32,077,869 (£21,118,769)
Costs of sales £28,929,081 (£19,268,592)
GROSS PROFIT £3,148,788 (£1,850,177)
Admin expenses £2,216,402 (£1,279,764)
OPERATING PROFIT £932,386 (£570,413)
Interest £11,027 (£102,487)
PROFIT BEFORE TAX £943,413 (£672,900)
Corporation Tax £278,836 (£175,499)
PROFIT FOR YEAR £664,577 (£497,401)

Shareholders took dividends of £1,015,541

We won't know what their performance was up to 31/7/2011 until they file their next accounts (due next April), but it's not unreasonable to assume they've maintained a similar growth rate

Of course, they have a massive head-start in terms of sales volume and membership numbers. But imutual's member-shareholder model does give it something unique and opens up possibilities which may not easily be available to other companies. So I think we should be encouraged to see how well a similar company is performing

[rayf]

keep going lads!

[mark_r_abcd]

What else does Maple Syrup Media own, though?

[richard@imutual]

The commentary to the accounts suggests that quidco is the main source of income. I know they are 'connected' with other sites but I'll think you'll find they are in separate companies

[magnificent7]

what about TopCashBack?

[richard@imutual]

They are UKC systems Ltd and their accounts to 31/1 are due in by the end of this month

[Bruce]

They are UKC systems Ltd and their accounts to 31/1 are due in by the end of this month

Although in previous years, they haven't submitted profits (only a balance sheet).

[richard@imutual]

Yes, I believe they can do that (and also avoid the need for an audit) so long as their turnover remains below £6.5m. I'd be surprised if that was the case this time around. As I recall, they did a press release last year celebrating "record profits" but then didn't say what those profits were

Returning to the example of Maple Syrup (and its relevance to imutual shareholders), what sort of valuation would you say those figures suggest? Dotcom with several years of solid growth, established brand, dominant in sector, growth rate of 50%, £32m turnover, pre-tax profit of nearly £1m. It must be somewhere north of £100m, surely?

Obviously, imutual is a long, long way from that position but it's something for us all to aspire to

[Bristolboy]

BY way of an update, tcb (UKC Systems Ltd) have just submitted their accounts to 31/1/2011 (previous year's figures in brackets):

TURNOVER £15,511,786 (£9,074,797)
Costs of sales £13,835,296 (£8,182,922)
GROSS PROFIT £1,676,490 (£891,875)
Admin expenses £684,470 (£338,398)
OPERATING PROFIT £992,020 (£553,552)
Interest £50,217 (£18,983)
PROFIT BEFORE TAX £1,042,237 (£572,531)
Corporation Tax £281,200 (£142,000)
PROFIT FOR YEAR £761,037 (£430,531)

The shareholders (i.e. the 2 directors) took dividends of £336,000, compared with £136,000 the previous year

On first glance, the things that jump out at me are:

- They're doing very well! Good news for imutual shareholders, who hope we can grab a decent share of this market over the next few years
- They actually made more profit than Quidco, despite quidco reporting more than twice tcb's turnover AND taking £5 off every active user. Their signicantly-lower admin expenses is one factor, but doesn't explain all of it
- They had nearly £4m cash in bank at the year end

[richard@imutual]

Considering these sites are described as "100% cashback", the difference of nearly £5m between what they've earned and what they give to members is something of a puzzle

I see that tcb have today launched a US version of their site. Interesting move. It's been either considered or actually tried by several big UK cashback companies before and never worked, but you never know...