Market sentiment towards Photo-Me International (PHTM) has weakened further after the photobooth and vending specialist flagged continued weakness in the UK.
Photo-Me revealed a 1.1 per cent decline in revenues from its identification business during the year to April, which it attributed to “challenging market conditions in the UK”. The identification segment covers photobooths and “integrated biometric identification solutions”, and accounted for 65 per cent of the company’s overall full-year turnover. Excluding the UK, its revenues here grew by 0.7 per cent.
Challenging conditions have persisted, and the impact upon Photo-Me’s identification business has become more damaging. Turnover over the five months to September fell by 3.8 per cent, reflecting a decline in activity in the UK photobooth market.
“This has been due to continued uncertainty around the UK's European Union exit negotiations, leading to lower consumer activity,” the company said, “and the UK government's decision to allow for photos taken on a smart device or camera at home to be used for passport photo identification”. Yet revenue growth beyond the UK has also tempered, compared with the full-year performance. Excluding the UK business, identification turnover grew by just 0.2 per cent year on year over the period.
