Tyrone Wilson President & CEO of iCreate Limited is breathing a sigh of relief as he releases the unaudited financial statements of the company for the three months ended March 31, 2020. iCreate posted revenue increases of 106%, with revenues of $24.5 million for quarter and 53% of the total revenue recorded for the 2019 financial year.
Commenting on the performance Wilson noted that the growth in revenue was attributable to a number of initiatives that the company took to ensure they delivered on a commitment to shareholders. They are as follows:
• Diversification of customer segments, which now include: Business-to-Consumer (B2C) Training, Business-to-Business (B2B) Training and Business-to-Business (B2B) Training Content Design and Production.
• Revenue growth in the Business-to-Consumer (B2C) Training customer segment, as a result of the addition of two new courses for the Kingston location which were widely accepted in Event & Entertainment Production and Interior Design.
• Revenue growth in the Business-to-Consumer (B2C) Training customer segment, as a result of growth in the student population. Specifically, revenue from Creative Courses increased by 166% while revenue from Digital Courses increased by 21%.
• Revenue growth in the Business-to-Business (B2B) Training customer segment, as a result of the earnings from a partnership with HEART (The Human Employment and Resource Training Trust/National Training Agency). Specifically, they have started training individuals from HEART in the areas of digital photography and digital video production, in both Kingston and Montego Bay.
• Revenue growth through the addition of a new customer segment: Business-to-Business (B2B) Training Content Design and Production. iCreate began serving this customer segment in order to tap into the growing demand for e-Learning Content Design & Production. Serving this new customer segment will allow them to further leverage their investment in production facilities and equipment to bring new revenue opportunities for the company.
In 2019 iCreate invested heavily in facilities and equipment which now allows them to partner with various educational institutions to provide training content to support their e-learning initiatives. E-Learning represents the future of education for schools, colleges, universities, and corporate training departments which are all-embracing the role of digital training delivery platforms Wilson reported.
For the three months ended March 31, 2020, the company’s gross profit increased from JA$8 million to JA$19.3 million, a 124% increase over the prior period.
Gross profit margins also saw an improvement, moving from 72.5% to 79% when compared to the similar period last year.
The company made an Operating Profit of $5.06 million for the quarter ending March 31, 2020, a 153% increase when compared to the corresponding period in 2019.
Wilson also took some pleasure in noting to shareholders in his report that he was pleased to report a Net Profit of $1.25m for the quarter ending March 31, 2020, their first profitable quarter since being listed on the Jamaica Stock Exchange.
This represents a 184% turnaround when compared to the Net Loss of $1.48m made in 2019, and was attributable to the number of strategic initiatives that were set in motion after being listed in 2019. Some of these strategic initiatives included the raising of the bond issue which was closed in February 2020 and the completion of the expansion and construction of iCreate’s training and operational infrastructures which was completed in 2019.
Going forward, he reported that they will be delivering the majority of their courses in a format using a hybrid of online & face-to-face delivery mechanisms. This change to a more blended strategy will allow them to expand offerings to a wider audience than was previously achievable with a face-to-face only training delivery strategy.