Escher Group, the specialist point-of-sale software provider to the postal industry is gaining the confidence of the sector, which is resulting in significant customer wins and a comforting set of H1 results to follow its maiden AIM prelims (see here).
In the six months to June 30 2012 it picked up three new contracts, including a 15 year $50m contract with USPS, which Escher says has scope to generate “substantial additional revenue” (the deal itself was huge compared to the size of the Escher business, see Escher scoops deal bigger than itself!). It certainly provides good visibility into a good portion of the revenue stream. International in nature, the other two contracts were with SwaziPost and Pakistan Post, both of which have the scope to expand. Escher is a small vendor dealing with clients much larger than itself. It is investing in the business but is still growing at a pace and made it back into profit in H1. Revenue for period rose 34% to $8.68m, producing profit before tax of $1.15m (an 182% improvement!). It has also taken debt down from $8.38m to $3.9m. With post offices contending with fundamental changes in their businesses and cost models as they modernise their services, Escher has established itself in a niche area that apparently is spending.