MEDIAZEST PLC - Trading Update

MEDIAZEST PLC - Trading Update

PR Newswire

                                 MediaZest Plc

               ("MediaZest", the "Company" or "Group"; AIM: MDZ)

                                Trading Update

MediaZest, the creative audio visual company, is pleased to provide
shareholders with a general update on trading.

Highlights:

  * Successfully executed on multi-national contract with Coca-Cola for FIFA
    World Cup;

  * Significantly improved revenue for year ended 31 March 2014 to its highest
    level since 2008;

  * Increased investment in sales and marketing has created a strong pipeline
    of projects;

  * Growing strategic relationships with blue chip customers such as Samsung,
    O2 and Pfizer;

  * New strategic relationship with SFD; and

  * Repayment of shareholder debt following successful fundraising in December
    2013.

3 LARGE PROJECTS

January through May 2014 saw the Group focus on the delivery of three large
projects:

First, Coca-Cola provided the company with the largest of these by way of a
contract to supply large scale audio-visual installations for the FIFA World
CupTM Trophy Tour presented by Coca-Cola. This took the Company to 48 countries
over the last 8 months and involved working closely with brand experience
pioneers, Ignition Inc. The Company also worked with Coca-Cola's head office
team in Atlanta, USA and provided engineering support and installation team
leadership at all 48 events. The contract was completed in May 2014 and based
on its successful delivery, the Group hopes to work with both parties again in
the future whilst acknowledging that by their nature, high profile projects
such as this only come along every few years.

Second, the Board announced previously a large University installation project
which was delivered predominantly in the first half of 2014. This project
involved the Company's entire engineering workforce at various points during
delivery and in total generated revenue for the company in excess of £400,000.

Finally, the Company completed delivery of its second substantial corporate
sector project in the period, by providing a highly advanced video wall
solution for a building refurbishment project at Bevis Marks, in the City of
London. Video footage of this installation can be seen on the Company's you
tube channel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKWicPd7cQE&list=
UUxXrI9QQVgLtSbNid_tgRIg

The combined effect of these three projects in the financial year ended 31
March 2014 has been to significantly improve revenue to approximately £2.9
million (2013: £1.85m), its highest level since 2008.

INVESTMENT IN MARKETING AND THE SALES PROCESS

In December 2013 the Group completed a successful fundraising, and as
represented a substantial proportion of shareholder debt was paid down with
only £200,000 remaining. The Company has also deployed funds in developing
advanced solutions in three key areas and most importantly begun to invest
again in proactively marketing its services to the retail community.

The impact of heavy investment in the sales and marketing process, has meant
that operating losses will remain at a similar level to last year's with a
small year on year increase once interest and depreciation is taken into
account. Whilst disappointing to show less progress on producing a positive
bottom line, the Directors believe the investment in the sales process -
including marketing initiatives - is absolutely crucial to generate longer term
opportunities to enable Group progression.

The core strategy continues to be the transition of the Company's revenue base
towards more ongoing, contractual-type business, and away from the dependency
on large scale projects which is difficult to predict and suffers the vagaries
of timing. As such, efforts are being focussed on larger scale roll-out
opportunities which naturally take longer to consummate than short term
campaigns. The Directors believe this strategy is now looking promising with
the future pipeline for FY 2015 and beyond looking much improved.

In May 2013, the Group appointed an experienced Corporate Sales Consultant and
this was followed by further investment in a new sales/marketing executive and
an additional Sales Consultant in autumn 2013. The Group also invested in a
brand new showroom in London to demonstrate its unique technology offering.
These actions have placed the Company in an improved position to grow revenues
but involve short term investment to build pipeline and bring opportunities to
fruition.

The Company website has also been updated. It now incorporates the wholly owned
subsidiary, previously known as TouchVision Limited and now renamed MediaZest
International.

In the first quarter of the calendar year, the Board decided it was time to
bring both brands together; to reduce client confusion and paperwork; and to
reflect the fact that over the years the two parts of the business have grown
so close together as to become inseparable - sharing clients, senior staff,
delivery and installation. The new website reflects this change as well as
showcasing more up to date work.

The largest single element of investment in the marketing process has been
attendance at global trade-show, Euroshop, in partnership with SFD Ltd. SFD Ltd
provides shop mannequin and visual merchandising services to many large
retailers and fashion brands on a global basis. Led by James Abdool, MediaZest
Sales Director, the Company has built a strong relationship with SFD, and as a
result, MediaZest agreed to provide audio visual solutions for the SFD stand at
Euroshop as the start of a partnership. Both businesses share similar
philosophies in terms of delivery excellence and are in discussions with
complementary prospective clients. As such a natural partnership has developed
whereby both Companies seek to assist each other grow their respective
businesses by sharing client introductions and working hand in hand to produce
unique full service solutions for retail clients. Effectively this also works
as an extension of the Groups "one stop shop" approach.

This partnership, whilst relatively informal, has already shown promise with
small window display projects already delivered for Marks & Spencer and H&M,
both existing SFD clients. The work for Marks & Spencer has been shortlisted
for a Retail Week Interiors Award in the "Best Use of Design with Technology
in-store" category.

The strategic relationship MediaZest enjoys with Samsung has also grown in
importance during the last six months. In addition to working on Samsung
marketing campaigns, both directly and through various agencies, Samsung and
MediaZest have worked closely together in discussions with a number of
retailers. Utilising Samsung's technology and MediaZest's design, content and
integration skills this joint approach has been successfully used to pitch to
large retail clients looking for in store solutions and the Board believes it
will generate business in the coming months.

In addition to these two relationships, the business continues to generate
further work from the likes of Kuoni, Fiat, O2, Pfizer and the University of
Essex amongst others. Following the success of the Coca-Cola project, the Board
has invested in a further marketing campaign during the FIFA World Cup 2014 to
look to generate further business in similar experiential environments. Follow
up meetings to explore these opportunities will begin this month.

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

The Board highlighted three specific areas in which it was developing unique
products in the announcement of 13 December 2013.

Of these, efforts have been concentrated on developing the audience measurement
and hologram systems based on extremely positive feedback from potential
customers.

MediaZest expects to launch the first version of the audience measurement
service, developed with Argus Global and termed "MediaZest Retail Analytics"
this week to a wider customer base and expects trial deployments to begin
shortly thereafter. The Company already has a large number of enquiries
expressing interest in this product from demonstrating the Beta version in its
showroom during client meetings. Further investment to develop this solution as
interest grows is likely to be necessary, but the Board believes this product
to be particularly attractive to retailers on an ongoing basis and that it will
assist in moving its revenue streams onto a more consistent basis.

Designs for the hologram unit are now finalised, with a test build scheduled
for summer 2014 with launch anticipated shortly thereafter.

OUTLOOK

As noted, the pipeline is building well, and an enormous amount of work has
gone into targeting larger scale opportunities with the potential to roll out
over the coming years and to deliver long term shareholder value. Geoff
Robertson, CEO of MediaZest said "The Company has made substantial progress in
the last 18 months. Delivery of the large Coca-Cola project, University fit out
and the Bevis Marks video wall project at the same time demonstrates how
accomplished our services are. The Board believes our ground-breaking work has
tremendous reach in the marketing community and that as the UK and global
economy slowly recovers, retailers investing in digital signage for their
stores will multiply. The Group is perfectly placed to capitalise on that."

Enquiries:

Geoff Robertson
Chief Executive Officer
MediaZest Plc                          020 7724 5680

Gavin Burnell / Edward Hutton
Nominated Adviser
Northland Capital Partners Limited     020 7382 1100

Claire Louise Noyce / Niall Pearson / William Lynne
Broker
Hybridan LLP                           020 3713 4580

Notes to Editors:

About MediaZest

MediaZest is a creative media agency that specialises in providing innovative
marketing solutions to leading retailers, brand owners and corporations, but
also works in the public sector in both the NHS and Education markets. The
Group supplies an integrated service from content creation and system design to
installation, technical support and maintenance. MediaZest was admitted to the
London Stock Exchange's AIM market in February 2005. For more information,
please visit www.mediazest.com
Anonymous (not verified) Trading Update 21844552 A Mon, 07/07/2014 - 07:00 Results and Trading Reports MDZ