RM sales down 15 per cent in challenging market

Education specialist drives £5m of operational savings during belt-tightening H1

Education IT specialist RM endured a double-digit revenue drop during its fiscal first half as it continued to face "challenging market conditions".

However, the system builder reported that, for the six months to 31 March, some £5m in annual costs have been stripped out of the business. Sales for the period fell 15 per cent to £133m, while adjusted pre-tax losses stood at £1.4m, compared with a £1.2m profit in the corresponding period last year.

Today's interim results also reveal that the Oxfordshire-based firm had £436m of forward-committed revenue as of 31 March, an increase of 12 per cent year on year. RM stressed that, due to the normal seasonality of its business, first-half results were not a harbinger of how its full-year numbers will look.

"We experienced challenging market conditions in our core markets in the first half, as customers continued to respond to changes in policy and funding in both the UK and the US," said RM chief executive Terry Sweeney. "We have realigned our cost base through a restructuring programme to reflect the changed conditions and to protect group profitability."