ad pepper media records significant sales and earnings improvement in Q2

Hoofddorp, The Netherlands, Nuremberg, July 30, 2002
ad pepper media International N.V., one of the leading European marketers of online advertising and direct marketing solutions, has announced its consolidated figures for the second quarter of fiscal year 2002:

ad pepper media International N.V. was able to improve on the positive growth recorded in the first quarter during Q2/2002 despite the generally reserved market development. Above average growth by new products, improved gross margins and a lean cost structure led to positive developments for all of the company’s key indicators for the current fiscal year 2002.

“The second quarter of this year has confirmed the positive sales growth of the past few months. We have been able to increase sales by 55% on the second quarter of the previous year – sales are even up a pleasing 42% on the previous quarter. In a crisis-ridden environment this shows that we are on the right track,” commented Ulrich Schmidt, ad pepper media’s CEO on the sales growth.

ad pepper media succeeded in increasing sales in the second quarter of 2002 by 55% to EUR 3.4 million (Q2/2001: EUR 2.2 million) while slashing operating costs during the second quarter by nearly 50% to EUR 2.2 million (Q2/2001: EUR 4.3 million). This improved the pre-tax earnings by 86 % from EUR -3.7 million to EUR -0.5 million. During the same period the net loss was cut by 87 % or around EUR 3.3 million to EUR –0.5 million, which led to an 85 % drop in the loss per share to EUR –0.05 (Q2/2001: EUR –0.34).

The cost-cutting program successfully introduced in 2001 led to a substantial improvement in EBIT during the first half of 2002 – by 77% from EUR –7.7 million in the first half of 2001 to EUR –1.8 million. Pre-tax earnings totaled EUR -1.3 million in the first six months, the loss thus fell by 81 % on the same period of the previous year (EUR –6.9 million). This positive growth is due to an increase in the gross margin from 18% to 40% as well as operational cost savings totaling 52%.

“More and more advertisers are demanding end-to-end, integrated product solutions with media, direct marketing and service components. Our direct marketing products are well accepted by the market and are already contributing substantially to sales,” added Ulrich Schmidt. The current strategy has proven itself to be correct – as is also shown by the fact that 8 of the 10 operating national companies were in the black during the first half of 2002.