Wirral manufacturer and installer of digital kiosks and signs, Evoke Creative, reports 30.1% rise in revenues to £31.1m and a growing footprint in North America. Tony McDonough reports
Evoke Creative is seeing growing demand for its digital kiosks and signage as it reports a big rise in revenues.
Based in Bromborough in Wirral, Evoke manufactures and installs digital kiosks and signage for blue chip retail and hospitality clients including McDonald’s, JD Sports, Adidas and Costa Coffee.
It currently has around 14,000 kiosks operating in 120 countries around the world and is installing them at a rate of 1,000 a year.
In the past few weeks Evoke has posted its annual accounts for the 12 months to March 31, 2024, on Companies House. They reveal a 30.1% rise in revenues to £31.1m despite what the company described as “challenging conditions”.
It also reported pre-tax losses of £875,962 this is an improvement on the previous year’s losses of £1.6m. However, Evoke says included in the figures is a “non-cash movement” related to “share capital treated as debt”.
There was also non-cash revaluation related to a £3.3m cash injection from major shareholder BFG in December 2023. The business is reporting a net operating profit of £1m compared to a loss of £900,000 in the previous year.
Writing in the annual report director Peter Edwards said: “Management considers the year to have been very successful.
“Despite worldwide inflation, component availability and working capital pressures, management implemented a range of business improvements around productivity and efficiency resulting in significantly improved profitability.
“Improvements in internal processes and strengthening of the management team have brought about the sustainable changes reinforced by BGF’s decision to invest to improve working capital pressures from a significant tier one hospitality sector win.”
Evoke was founded by Dean Ward and Neil Clark. However, in December 2023 Neil stepped away from the business. Dean remains a major shareholder along with BFG.
According to the accounts Evoke employed 122 people during the accounting period, up from 110 in the previous year. Shareholders received dividends for the year totalling £201,000.
Peter Edwards added: “The board is pleased with the revenue and operating profit growth achieved… the group continues to invest in R&D expanding our hardware product range.”
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He added it was “pleased with its advances into other markets and is excited by its progress in further building a US presence at scale”.
In conclusion, he said: “The group remains in a very strong position to continue with its growth with a healthy financial outlook. Continuing market demand for best of breed self-service solutions is reflected in the group’s strong order book and sales pipeline.”