Altitude Group plc (incorporating Customer Focus) have announced that Group Managing Director Vicky Robinson has decided that after ten years with Altitude, she would like to take time out with her family and is therefore leaving the Company. As a result, Martin Varley, currently Group Commercial Director, has been appointed Group Chief Executive.

Peter Hallett, Non-Executive Director, has been appointed to the role of Non-Executive Chairman with Richard Sowerby moving from Executive Chairman to Non-Executive Director.

In addition, Altitude have appointed Shaun Parker (aged 53, and currently a director of Marizon Consulting Limited) to the Board position of Chief Operating Officer. Shaun has a wide and relevant experience of the technology sector; having held senior management positions in Specialist Computer Centres, Ricoh Global Services, Redstone plc, Hewlett Packard and Compaq, particularly in outsourced managed services including software.

Following these changes, the Board comprises two executive and two non-executive directors.

Commercial Update

The last 18 months have seen a substantial re-engineering of the business, during which the annual run rate of staff costs has been reduced by more than £1.5 million compared to the levels at March 2015. The drive to remove costs and ‘right size’ the business has been a key focus of the operating team. The fact that this has been achieved whilst refining products and maintaining key customer relationships is a testament to the dedication, skill and hard work of the team.

The Group is now increasing its focus on the Software as a Service (“SaaS”) business, and is exploring how it can maximise returns through transactional charges rather than a monthly subscription model alone. We see the opportunity to grow revenue in this way and simultaneously to add users to our artworktool.com platform. The full commercial release of the Artworktool application took place this month, and we are excited about the opportunities this presents.

With products that are built and ready for market, it is anticipated that the high cost of software development will reduce; and with an operationally focused leadership, we will invest only where there are clearly defined commercial opportunities.

We enter 2016 with our Promotional Products Expo on 20 and 21 January expected to increase contribution again and the launch of artworktool.com having taken place. The Group has no debt and sufficient cash resources to execute its plan.