Altitude Group plc
("Altitude", the "Company" or "Group")
Enterprise Level Technology Agreement
Altitude Group plc, the provider of innovative technology solutions for small to medium sized businesses, is pleased to announce that its wholly owned subsidiary, Customer Focus Software Inc., has agreed a partnership with Aprinta Group ("Aprinta") based in Rochester, NY, USA, a leader in the provision of screen printing and promotional product supply to distributors, based in North America (the "Agreement").
Under the terms of the Agreement, Altitude will provide a technology solution to create over one million linked websites for Aprinta's distributor customers. Each of these e-commerce enabled sites will be automatically branded with the customer's logo or design using technology from the Group's Interactive Imaging business, including the patented ArtworkTool solution. In addition, Altitude will provide Aprinta with full visibility and editorial control across the entire customised website structure.
In return, Altitude will receive a share of the gross margin on revenue generated through the new website structure.
The agreement is for an initial five-year term, with automatic renewal for a further five years. The Directors expect the first websites to be in place towards the end of Q3 2016 and that the Agreement will not have an impact on the Group's results for the current year.
Peter Hallett, Non-Executive Chairman of Altitude, said "The estimated 130,000 promotional product salespeople in the USA previously had to rely on slow and expensive legacy solutions to provide a custom website for each of their customers, and this provided a barrier to growth in online trading for promotional products. Once Altitude generated websites go live, an improved overall experience will be available online and on demand, with a custom online store created in three clicks, and an engaging shopping experience delivered with full e-commerce capability in under a minute.
"We have previously announced that we were exploring ways to increase shareholder value by leveraging our comprehensive suite of protected and proprietary applications, and that our preference was to seek a share of revenue rather than a flat monthly fee for our services. This is the first of a number of such opportunities that we are working on.
"The Agreement fully aligns us with Aprinta's strategy and we are delighted to have agreed terms on this partnership. Not only will we provide the linked websites, but we will also deliver product visualisation and production ready artwork as well as a CRM/ERP solution to ensure an optimal customer experience with a high level of operational efficiency. This click to shiptm partnership model is a new innovation and has potential in other markets, whichwe plan to address."
Billy Dolan, Chief Executive of Aprinta Group, said, "We have had this vision for three years and have looked at every option to find a technology partner that not only understood the personalised product space in fine detail, but also had every element of the technology we needed to make this a success by accommodating a significant transition of the industry to an online model. The revenue share arrangement ensures we are all incentivised to deliver this solution to distributors in the USA's $22 billion market place.
"We have over half a million square feet of production space in Alexander City, Alabama alone, with additional facilities in Rochester, New York and Los Angeles, California giving us the largest capacity for screen printing in the USA. We also have plans to double this over the next 12 months by adding new equipment and upgrading existing machinery. There is no other company with the capacity to print, pack and ship 500,000 t-shirts and 500,000 pens from the same facility within two days."
Enquiries:
Altitude Group plc
Peter J Hallett (Non-Executive Chairman)
Tel: 07887 987469
WH Ireland Limited (Nominated Adviser and Broker)
Tim Feather
Liam Gribben
Tel: 0113 394 6600
