Teesside tech firm Vianet says it remains confident for strong growth, driven by a rise in contactless payments amid the Covid-19 crisis.
The Stockton Internet of Things specialist has held its AGM where its chairman updated shareholders on its work with pub customers through the pandemic, as well as a series of new contracts with coffee retailers.
The firm provides systems and services to the leisure and vending sectors through its two divisions, smart zones and smart machines, and it has also launched a new product called Smart Shield, a Covid-19 antiviral sanitising service for pubs and bars.
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The service, carried out in premises by Vianet’s nationwide team of engineers, has seen the business partner with Filta Environmental to use Zoono Sanitiser, with a program designed to sanitise and protect surfaces within premises for up to 30 days.
Chairman James Dickson said: “Thanks to our proactive response to management of C19, the group’s performance in the first two months of the financial year has been very encouraging, with losses comfortably lower than anticipated.
“Whilst it is too early to fully determine demand, we have also received the first orders for Smart Shield, our recently launched C19 sanitisation service for pubs.”
Within Smart Zones division, Mr Dickson said its leisure customers are increasingly seeking trading data ahead of this weekend’s reopening date, to improve decision-making during the Covid-19 exit phase.
The firm has also given pricing relief to its pub company customers, which will bring in around 70% of normal contracted fees for weekly support services until October 31, after which normal contract terms will resume.
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Meanwhile, seveal new contracts have been set up.
Mr Dickson said: “In Smart Machines, the decision to increase and accelerate our Q4 2020 investment in additional sales and marketing capabilities and our investment in the product roadmap is already starting to yield results.
“We have seen strong momentum that we forecast will accelerate our growth during the C19 exit phase.
“Contracts have been finalised with several new customers, including Tchibo and Lavazza, and there is an encouraging pipeline of new contracts under discussion that are pending customers returning to more normal operations in the coming months.
“The strong pipeline is being driven by the growing trend away from cash payments, towards connected assets with reduced frequency of site visits and minimised business risk.
“These strong trends will continue to gain momentum post lockdown, increasing the requirement for remote connection to unattended retail assets.
“Whilst we recognise that the C19 situation is still unpredictable and uncertain, we remain confident that the Group is in a very good position to resume its strong earnings growth, continue the solid momentum that was building into FY2021 and deliver on the exciting growth opportunities that we see ahead of us.”
Shares rose by 9.5% to 95p in early trading following the update.