report and 
financial statements  
year ended 31
st
 december 2014 
company number 8904529 
© 2015 attraqt group plc 
	
   	
    
 
 
2 
12 years of attraqt 
	
  
	
  
	
    
 
 
3 
	
  
	
  
	
  
	
  
	
   	
    
 
 
4 
corporate statement 
 
attraqt is a fast growing saas software business 
providing an online merchandising platform to retailers  
 
uniquely the attraqt freestyle merchandising
®
 
platform provides the complete range of visual 
merchandising disciplines within a single platform 
providing a dynamic robust and scalable solution that 
delivers increased online revenue and reduced costs to 
retailers by enabling them to take total control of their 
online visual merchandising 
	
  
    
 
 
5 
contents 
4 corporate statement 
5 contents 
6 key highlights 
7 chairman’s statement 
strategic report 
9 the fsm platform 
10 case study 
11 visual merchandising the attraqt way 
12 attraqt’s competitive strategy 
13 our growth strategy 
14 black friday statistics  
15 our clients 
16 case study 
17 kpis 
19 risks  mitigation 
21 ceo’s statement 
25 case studies 
governance 
28 board of directors 
32 corporate governance report 
34 audit committee report 
35 remuneration committee report 
38 directors report 
42 report of independent auditors 
company financial statements – attraqt group plc – consolidated 
44 statement of comprehensive income 
45 statement of financial position 
46 statement of cash flows 
47 statement of changes in equity 
48 notes forming part of the financial statements 
company financial statements – attraqt group plc – company 
67 company statement of financial position 
68 company statement of changes in equity 
69 notes forming part of the company financial statements 
72 company information 
    
 
 
6 
key highlights 
 
• revenue up 32 from £158m to £209m 
 
• recurring monthly revenue increased by 
  30 to £192m 
 
• momentum in the sales process with 36 new 
clients added 
 
• maintained gross margin at 81 
 
• us sales operation coming onstream with 
  6 new us clients 
 
• 35 new client implementations bringing the total 
live sites to 110 
 
• platform usage up by 41 
 
• admission to aim raising £125m 
 
• very strong performance during black friday and 
the christmas period 
 
 
 
 
we are very pleased with the 
strong progress in 2014 – the 
management team is clearly 
delivering to plan and we are 
confident in the outlook for 2015 
and beyond 
dan wagner 
cofounder and chairman
 
    
 
 
7 
chairman’s statement 
dan wagner cofounder and chairman february 2015 
 
as a newly listed plc i am 
delighted with the performance 
of the company and its 
management team we have had 
a fantastic year signing 36 new 
clients and taking our client 
roster to 87 clients with 110 live 
sites 
 
the group is experiencing 
growing demand from major 
retail players seeking to 
significantly improve their 
conversion rates customer 
retention and increase the 
average value of orders 
 
attraqt’s powerful 
merchandising software delivers 
significant value to retailers as 
demonstrated by the recent 
success of black friday where 
the business saw client usage of 
its freestyle merchandising 
platform increase to over 6 times 
the normal rate 
 
more significantly the average 
conversion rate rose to 5 
which is a 50 increase over a 
normal friday 33 and the 
number of transactions was 
630 higher than normal 
 
on black friday the platform 
served 28m unique users in a 
single day an increase of 245 
on a normal day together with a 
107 increase in activity 
compared with the same period 
in 2013 furthermore cyber 
monday and boxing day 
although not as busy as black 
friday but themselves key trading 
days also saw very high levels of 
activity 
 
the trends we are seeing across 
the platform are very exciting not 
only have we significantly 
increased the number of 
customers on the platform but 
their reliance on our software is 
also increasing  
 
importantly the return on 
investment delivered by our 
software to our customers 
continues to grow our two 
largest clients saw online revenue 
delivered through the platform 
increase by 56 and 58 
respectively in 2014 beyond 
these two clients the average 
increase in online revenue 
delivered through the platform to 
the rest of the group’s client base 
in 2014 was 23 
 
this has flowed through into a 
solid set of results for the year 
demonstrating top line growth of 
32 to £209m with a modest 
increase in ebitda loss reflecting 
our investments in the platform 
and operations of the business 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2015 has started 
well for attraqt 
and the board 
looks to the future 
with confidence 
dan wagner 
cofounder and chairman 
    
 
 
8 
strategic report 
    
 
 
9 
the freestyle merchandising platform 
innovative provider of visual merchandising site search and product 
recommendation technology 
 
attraqt provides a saas 
merchandising platform to 
retailers called freestyle 
merchandising the platform acts 
as a plugin for a retailer’s 
ecommerce site and provides 
tools to enable retailers to 
merchandise effectively 
 
freestyle merchandising enables 
retailers to control how their 
products are merchandised 
through their ecommerce sites 
including site search product 
recommendations category 
pages product detail pages 
checkout basket email order 
tracking and instore devices 
 
merchandising can be 
implemented using business 
rules dynamically using 
behavioural data and manually or 
any combination of these 
 
freestyle merchandising uses 
balance factor technology 
developed by attraqt which 
applies a weighting to metrics 
such as popularity price colour 
stock availability and trend etc to 
determine the sequence in which 
products are displayed 
 
implementation of freestyle 
merchandising provides 5 core 
benefits to retailers 
 
• commercial gain from increased 
conversion rates and higher 
 
average order values 
• 3 technologies in 1 site 
search visual merchandising 
and product 
recommendations 
 
• complete control over how 
their products are 
merchandised online 
 
• removes the reliance on 
internal it to make visual 
merchandising changes on 
the ecommerce site 
 
• productivity gain from 
their visual merchandising 
team 
attraqt has approximately 
90 retail clients covering the 
whole spectrum of retail from 
largescale enterprises such 
as screwfix tesco clothing 
and tk maxx to midsized 
businesses such as 
boohoocom ellis brigham 
emma bridgewater heals 
laura ashley and superdry 
as well as smaller boutique 
retailers such as joseph lulu 
guinness myla and wolf  
badger 
 
the company continues to 
invest in maintaining its 
platform at the leading edge 
of visual merchandising and 
released 8 platform upgrades 
during 2014  
in addition to platform 
developments the company also 
released a new product in q4 
called attraqtmail™ the 
product allows retailers to 
merchandise to customers 
through their current email 
marketing systems 
 
according to experian’s 2013 
email marketing study 
personalised promotional emails 
were shown to increase revenue 
six times higher in comparison 
to nonpersonalised emails  
 
 
we are expecting great 
things from attraqtmail 
 
a key feature of attraqtmail is 
that it is both personalised and 
provided in realtime this 
means that the email is 
personalised when it is opened 
not when it is sent 
 
attraqt has an exciting 
development roadmap for 2015 
including the company’s new in
memory performance 
technology tests have been very 
promising and the technology is 
due for release in q1   
 
 
10 
ff clothing at tesco 
case study 
 
 
the client one of the “big four’ tesco 
was a pioneer in supermarket clothing 
when it launched household name 
florence  fred in 2006 since then the 
brand has expanded globally with a 
particular focus on pursuing 
international growth and establishing 
multichannel leadership in all of its 
markets 
 
the challenge with more than 7000 
products in its clothing portfolio clothing 
at tesco needed to offer shoppers the 
ability to find their favourite products fast 
in order to ensure maximum basket 
values and conversion rates however a 
cumbersome system was inhibiting the 
company’s ability to deliver the accurate 
and personal results and 
recommendations shoppers expect 
 
the solution attraqt freestyle 
merchandising has given clothing at 
tesco the ability to provide highly 
relevant recommendations at every point 
across the user journey intelligent 
algorithms mean that recommendations 
are adjusted in real time as shoppers 
search and click through the store 
 
the result a faster more relevant 
service for shoppers delivering better 
conversions and higher order values 
across the product range  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
attraqt provided a 
solution that is easy to 
use and delivers results 
until we launched with 
attraqt our systems 
just couldn’t achieve 
what we needed to do” 
mark wakeley  
change manager tesco 
   
 
 
11 
visual merchandising the attraqt way 
attraqt freestyle merchandising allows retailers to optimise product positioning 
and tailor content to different markets to target and convert global customers 
 
attraqt’s advanced online 
search and visual merchandising 
solutions make it easy to apply 
traditional creative visual 
merchandising techniques online  
the unique flexibility of attraqt 
allows merchandisers the 
freedom to fully control the 
product mix and sequencing of 
products to produce optimum 
sales results just as they would in 
store  
 
attraqt understands how critical 
it is to get the right products in 
front of the right people at the 
right time trends and buying 
patterns change – retailers need 
to adapt just as quickly with 
attraqt’s drag and drop 
collections balance factor 
control powerful sitesearch and 
personalised product 
recommendations this couldn’t 
be simpler ensuring that retailers 
are always insync with their 
customers’ needs and are able to 
manage the growing demands of 
their business 
 
 
how attraqt works 
 
visual merchandising 
• intelligent visual merchandising  
using the drag and drop 
collections retailers can 
effortlessly curate their product 
offering to their audience  
• attraqt’s balance factor 
technology enables a 
merchandiser to fully 
automate dynamic product
sequencing based on 
metrics including stock 
price margin newness style 
colour and more 
 
• international localisation – 
countryspecific 
merchandising and content 
enables a retailer to tailor 
their product offering 
considering factors such as 
season climate and differing 
cultural tastes 
 
site search 
• attraqt optimises their 
sitesearch using balance 
factor technology to 
manipulate the sequencing 
of results pages search 
driven merchandising can be 
created using an array of 
metrics including newest in 
best selling highest stock 
and many more 
 
• spell correction using several 
combined algorithms to 
predict both misspelling and 
mistyping in relation to their 
tailored product database it 
results in fewer zero search 
results and far fewer losses 
of potential buyers 
 
product recommendations 
• personalised product 
recommendations that improve 
conversion rates and average 
order values using a full range 
of behavioural algorithms 
manual collections and balance 
factor control retailers can 
ensure that they’re offering the 
right customers the right 
products and lead them to 
convert 
 
attraqtmail™ 
• dynamic product 
recommendations that can be 
easily added to retailer emails 
recommendations can be 
generated using specific 
products by curating 
collections or retailers can use 
balance factor technology to 
push products dynamically 
using metrics including stock 
availability newness price style 
and many more 
 
• content can be set to generate 
at the point of opening not just 
at the point of sending – 
meaning content is truly 
dynamic 
 
• alternative products will replace 
items that fall out of stock so 
retailers are never left with 
incomplete emails and won’t 
waste sales opportunities by 
pushing unavailable products  
   
 
 
12 
attraqt’s competitive strategy 
 
freestyle merchandising acts as a plugin for a 
retailer’s existing ecommerce platform providing 
merchandising tools that enable retailers to 
merchandise more effectively 
 
the company’s competitive strategy includes 
 
 
 
 
    
 
 
13 
our growth strategy
 
 
built into the company’s dna is the concept of developing 
innovative technology and turning it into easy to use products 
 
the company has used this approach to successfully develop 
the market for its product freestyle merchandising and gain 
approximately 90 clients 
 
the threeyear strategy funded by the aim listing comprises 
five elements 
	
   	
    
 
 
14 
black friday statistics 
“black friday” is the friday following thanksgiving day in the united states the fourth 
thursday of november 
 
 
since the early 2000s it has been regarded as the 
beginning of the christmas shopping season in the 
us and most major us retailers offer promotional 
sales 
 
although a us invention the black friday 
phenomenon has started to make an appearance in 
the uk over the last few years and in 2014 it was 
certainly a significant event 
 
the company had thoroughly prepared for black 
friday and was pleased to see that its merchandising 
platform performed to plan despite the exceptional 
load 
 
the platform stats from black friday included 
• platform usage was over 6 times higher than normal 
 
• average conversion rate rose to 5 which was a 
50 increase over a normal friday 33 
 
• number of transactions was 630 more than 
normal 
 
• served 28m unique users an increase of 245 on 
a normal day 
 
• 107 increase in activity compared with the same 
period in 2013 
we have seen considerable 
increases in the activity levels of 
clients using attraqt freestyle 
merchandising the success of our 
freestyle merchandising platform 
in delivering improved outcomes 
for our customers is most 
significantly demonstrated by the 
high conversion rates 58 across 
our top twenty customers  one 
customer was as high as 22  
 
our merchandising solution which 
provides increased operational 
efficiency for our clients is 
particularly beneficial during 
periods of heavy trading such as 
the christmas period  
andré brown 
ceo of attraqt group plc 
 
 
 
    
 
 
15 
our clients 
 
attraqt is the trusted online merchandising partner for many retailers both large and small 
here are just a few of the companies that we work with 
 
 
 
 
 
 
“attraqts product and accessory recommendations ensure that customers have 
quick access to the outfits they seek its about offering convenient service helping 
customers to choose the ideal look for them and ultimately increasing conversion 
rates and order values by pointing them towards extra products that will 
complement their main choices” 
mark wakeley 
change manager at tesco 
    
 
 
16 
wolf  badger 
case study 
 
the client since its beginnings in 2009 
wolf  badger has expanded 
dramatically to feature hundreds of the 
hottest names in fashion jewellery and 
interior design the company’s 
ecommerce site has become a 
cornerstone in its merchandising 
strategy significantly growing sales and 
brand recognition since its launch 
 
the challenge wolf  badger needed 
to recreate its powerful and unique in
store experience in the digital space 
the right solution had to be integrated 
into a custom made platform providing 
the ability to handle thousands of 
products across more than 200 
independent brands whilst maintaining 
simplicity and speed for visitors 
 
the solution wolf  badger 
implemented attraqt’s freestyle 
merchandising platform including its 
sophisticated search merchandising and 
product recommendation capabilities  
 
this comprehensive mix is controlled via 
a single userfriendly control panel 
giving ecommerce managers the 
capacity to enhance the merchandising 
strategy whilst remaining fully engaged 
with other areas of business 
 
the result a visually compelling 
responsive customer offering that 
reflects the unique brand and drives 
outstanding sales and conversion rates 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
100 
sales increase 
 
50 
conversion increase 
 
onsite time up 
bounce rates down   
 
 
17 
key performance indicators 
 
the company uses key performance 
indicators kpis to measure progress in the 
business these indicators provide visibility 
of both our financial and strategic 
performance  
 
 
    
 
 
18 
 
 
 
 
    
 
 
19 
risks  mitigation 
principal risks and uncertainties 
 
competitive risk 
the growth in ecommerce has 
resulted in a significant increase in 
software companies seeking to supply 
online retailers with enabling 
technology the directors are not 
aware of any directly comparable 
competitor offering all three elements 
of the company’s platform in a saas 
package the directors believe having 
all three elements makes it easier for 
the company to both reduce 
incumbent competitors’ new 
prospects and to defend its existing 
clientbase from external competitors 
and consider that its competitors 
would face significant barriers in 
attempting to replicate the company’s 
technology 
 
loss of key clients 
the loss of key clients is always a 
potential threat however the 
company seeks to mitigate this risk in 
several ways a clients sign for a 
minimum of 12months or longer with 
automatic annual renewals b the 
company invests in extensive client 
support and training to ensure users 
are able to use the platform 
effectively and c the company also 
invests in account management and 
professional services to ensure that 
clients renew their commercial 
arrangements with the company 
 
platform outage 
as a provider of a saas service the 
company relies on its hosting 
partners to provide an uninterrupted 
service the company mitigates this 
risk by using faulttolerant load
balanced cloud services to ensure 
uninterrupted service 
 
 
recruitment and retention 
as with any fast growing software 
business the company’s growth 
strategy is predicated on hiring 
people who will be effective in 
realising its growth ambitions 
this means sales and marketing 
hires as well as the technical 
people that expand capacity in 
terms of getting sites live are 
crucial to drive the company’s 
revenue base the directors 
believe that over the last two 
years the company has refined 
its gotomarket strategy and can 
train new recruits quickly they 
also regularly review the market 
rates of salaries and benefits to 
ensure staff have appropriate 
compensation and reward 
packages 
 
retail sector exposure 
due to the nature of the 
technology the company offers 
the company’s customers are 
predominantly in the retail sector  
 
a widespread downturn in the 
economy could put pressure on 
capital expenditure budgets for 
software spending if overall retail 
volumes dropped which could 
result in early termination of 
customer contracts and deter 
new customers from using the 
company’s services 
 
the company seeks to mitigate 
such risks by a signing clients on 
12month contracts and b 
continually considering new 
market opportunities 
 
  
technological risk 
the company operates in an 
industry where competitive 
advantage is heavily dependent 
on technology it is possible that 
technological development may 
reduce the importance of the 
company’s function in the 
market to remain competitive 
the company continues to 
enhance and improve the 
responsiveness functionality 
accessibility and other features 
of its software services and 
technologies 
 
intellectual property 
the company’s intellectual 
property rights are important 
assets the company relies on a 
combination of copyright 
registered and unregistered 
trademarks registered domain 
names database rights and the 
law protecting confidential 
information to define and 
protect its rights to brands 
technologies and databases that 
are critical to its ability to 
compete in the online 
comparison market 
 
the company discloses proprietary 
knowledge information and 
technology to third parties under 
licensing or other agreements 
there is always a possibility that 
such a party may misappropriate 
or challenge the company’s right to 
such knowledge information and 
technology 
 
   
 
 
20 
 
to the extent that the company’s 
brands technologies and databases are 
not protected by intellectual property 
rights third parties including 
competitors may be able to 
commercialise or otherwise use the 
company’s brand technologies andor 
databases without compensating the 
company  
 
the company also seeks to maintain 
certain intellectual property as trade 
secrets the security of its trade secrets 
could be compromised by contractors 
or outside parties or intentionally or 
accidentally by its employees which 
would cause the company to lose part 
of its competitive advantage 
 
any misappropriation of the company’s 
intellectual property could have a 
materially adverse effect on the 
company’s business financial condition 
or operating results  
 
furthermore the company may need 
to take legal action to enforce its 
intellectual property or to protect 
trade secrets  
 
defending such claims may result in 
substantial costs and the diversion of 
resources and management attention 
and there can be no guarantees as to 
the outcome of any such litigation or 
that it can be effectively used to 
enforce the company’s rights 
   
 
 
21 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
ceo’s statement  
andré brown chief executive officer 26
th
 february 2015 
 
introduction 
we are very pleased with the strong 
operational and financial progress 
achieved by attraqt during 2014 
we have grown our customer base 
significantly adding important 
marquee names to our client roster 
further building the volume of 
recurring revenue  
 
the focus on our production 
processes earlier in the year has 
paid off with a significant increase in 
the number of new client sites being 
delivered in 2014 success in sales 
and production has contributed to 
the growth in revenue which we 
expect to see continue in 2015  
 
we have made some significant 
enhancements to the platform 
during the year and have an 
exciting development programme 
for 2015 in addition we are 
working on a number of important 
technology partnerships to extend 
the functionality of the platform 
and to expand the use of our 
technology into new market 
segments 
 
business model 
the company’s business model is 
based on a recurring monthly 
service fee plus a oneoff setup 
fee and additional followon 
project fees clients sign up for a 
minimum of 12 months but some 
larger clients sign up for a longer 
period of 23 years  
 
  
the current sales model is based on 
direct sales via a dedicated sales team 
due to the importance of the 
functionality provided by the platform 
to our clients client loyalty is strong 
and churn is typically less than 5 of 
revenue per annum with most clients 
automatically renewing at the end of 
the contractual term this rate 
remains the same throughout the 
year on an annualised basis 
 
growth strategy 
the company’s current objective is to 
become the merchandising platform 
of choice for online retailers in 
western europe and the us with the 
longerterm aim of taking on more 
global capacity 
    
 
 
22 
attraqt’s business plan is simple 
and scalable founded on 5 key 
elements 1 focus on sales and 
marketing to grow client base and 
volume of recurring revenue 2 
expand the company’s productive 
capacity to keep pace with 
accelerating sales 3 develop 
strategic partnerships – both sales 
and technology – to accelerate sales 
growth and extend our product 
offering 4 extend the capabilities of 
the platform through continued 
investment in platform development 
adding new features and creating 
new products to create new revenue 
streams and 5 identify new markets 
and new ways to repurpose our 
technology 
 
review of sales  operations 
the company has continued to grow 
the clientbase in the year adding 36 
new clients in the uk and the us 
2013 31 worth £089m on an 
annualised basis these included 
important marquee names such as 
ben sherman cotton traders 
heals jd williams kate spade 
screwfix warehouse wilkinson 
and white stuff – bringing the total 
number of clients by the end of 
december 2014 to 87 2013 60 
 
the average value of new client 
contracts signed in 2014 has 
increased by 45 to £24700 
reflecting the clear return on 
investment we can demonstrate for 
our products the growing maturity of 
the sales team and process and the 
increasing size of our typical customer 
 
production also performed well in 
2014 with the company delivering 35 
new client sites during the year 
bringing the total live sites to 110 by 
year end the company also started 
24 new site builds at the end of 2014 
which are scheduled to be delivered in 
2015  
it is also pleasing to see existing 
clients trusting the company to do 
follow on project work such as 
rwd responsive web design 
projects and search autocomplete 
projects during 2014  
 
the company’s investment in 
excellent client service continues 
to pay dividends through low 
customer churn rates we have 
achieved renewals from major 
clients including bt directories 
and nectar both having  been 
clients since 2005 as well as laura 
ashley paperchase and tesco 
clothing 
 
interesting client 
implementations during the year 
included the following 
 
ellis brigham decided to leverage 
the ‘checkout page’ by tempting 
customers to add extra items to 
their basket just before they pay 
during christmas trading ellis 
brigham used the tools within 
freestyle merchandising to make 
sure the first two products in the 
‘recommendation zone’ were £10 
and £20 gift vouchers this was a 
huge success as customers were 
triggered to buy gift vouchers 
where they normally would not 
have thought to do so 
 
life style sports recently went live 
with an ipad ambassador’ program 
where instore sales staff were 
supplied ipad tablets loaded with 
attraqt’s freestyle 
merchandising solution these 
devices are then deployed as an 
alternative browsing and checkout 
channel the functionality 
replicates the main website which 
instore allows for a wider range of 
products to be considered 
alleviates stock issues enables  
  
greater interaction with the customer 
and ultimately offers a more 
streamlined check out process 
customer feedback was very positive – 
they particularly liked the integration 
and ease of purchase and delivery 
 
us expansion  
attraqt has continued to focus on 
its us expansion plans following the 
establishment of a sales office in new 
york at the end of 2013 during 2014 
we have successfully added 6 new us 
clients cufflinkscom ghurka kate 
spade revolve clothing st 
bernards sports inc and 1800 
wheelchairs the company recently 
hired a senior sales person together 
with a telemarketer as part of its plans 
to continue the expansion of the us 
operation  
 
platform enhances and product 
development 
platform enhancements and 
product developments increase the 
competitive strength of the 
platform with developments being 
largely driven by customer demand 
and trends in the market in 
particular 2014 saw the continuing 
development of the platform with 
eight upgrades being deployed 
during the year  
 
these releases included additional 
functionality such as improved 
currency and language support and 
options to synchronise product 
collections between sites other 
enhancements included increasing 
the performance and functionality of 
the platform integrating “ab testing” 
to allow retailers to split site traffic to 
test different merchandising 
strategies enhanced search 
capabilities and increased reporting 
functionality   
 
 
23 
market developments 
online retail is a very competitive and 
high profile industry that is constantly 
evolving as retailers find new ways to 
drive conversion rates and increase 
customer loyalty  
 
a new and developing market trend 
has been the move by retailers away 
from the automated ‘blackbox’ 
method of providing product 
recommendations the black box 
method works by blindly processing 
data through an algorithm which 
neither provides an explanation for its 
recommendations nor allows the 
retailer to make adjustments to the 
recommendations  
 
the market trend is towards a more 
nuanced approach that allows the 
retailer interaction with the 
recommendations being made and 
in particular to extend their 
merchandising strategies into those 
recommendations – a move which 
plays to the core strength of the 
platform  
 
one of the other big developments 
we have seen in the market is the 
move to multichannel with retailers 
such as tesco clothing adopting in
store tablets and kiosks and to 
internationalisation with clients 
such as superdry rolling out 20 
international sites  
 
the big challenge for both multi
channel and internationalisation is 
how to ensure consistency of 
merchandising across channels and 
countries – something at which the 
board believes attraqt particularly 
excels through its platform we will 
continue to monitor market trends 
and enhance the platform to ensure 
it meets customers’ needs  
  
 
financial review 
total revenue was marginally 
ahead of expectations having risen 
by 32 to £209m 2013 £158m 
as new customers were added and 
existing customers launched 
additional sites the recurring 
monthly revenue which represents 
90 of total group revenue also 
rose by 30 from £148m to 
£192m and the exit rate year
end annualised billing for 2014 
was up 42 at £236m  
   
the group recorded losses before 
tax and at the ebitda level both at 
levels in line with management 
expectations losses before tax 
increased to £153m 2013 
£056m predominantly as a result 
of the aim flotation expenses the 
higher ongoing costs associated 
with the company’s public listing 
and investing to grow the business 
ebitda losses rose to £074m 
2013 £039m driven by the 
investment in the us sales 
operation and in expanding the 
productive capacity of the 
company attraqt continues to 
invest in technical enhancements 
to the existing product offerings 
and in new products some of this 
cost is capitalised but some is 
absorbed as part of the operating 
costs of the business  
 
admission to aim 
as a ukbased technology 
company aim feels like the natural 
home for attraqt the company 
spent the first half of 2014 
preparing for its admission to the 
aim market which was successfully 
completed on 19
th
 august 2014 
 
we are proud of attraqt’s 
progress to date having achieved a 
great deal over the last 12 years 
since our founding in 2003 we now 
have a strong portfolio of clients and 
believe that by joining aim we will 
have an increased profile with future 
customers and better access to funds 
allowing us to further develop the 
company both domestically and 
internationally  
 
the capital raised on ipo £125m 
before expenses by way of a share 
subscription is being used to fund 
expansion of the us sales team 
increase the productive capacity of the 
business and increase the 
functionality of the core platform 
 
outlook 
we are very pleased with the strong 
progress we have made in 2014 the 
management team is delivering to 
plan and we are gaining traction with 
leading retailers both in the uk and 
us securing an increasing number of 
larger customers as retailers look for a 
means to grow their online revenues 
and interact with their customers in a 
more personalised manner 
 
• there is real momentum in the 
sales process and we see this 
continuing into 2015  
 
• the platform is performing well 
having coped with a significant 
increase in platform usage in 2014 
compared to 2013 without 
affecting performance 
 
• our production processes are 
becoming more efficient enabling 
the company to support the 
increasing volume of new clients 
being signed 
 
• the us sales operation continues 
to show good progress having 
signed six new clients from a 
standing start  
   
 
 
24 
 
  
• we have maintained our high 
margin and low revenue churn 
with a strong pipeline of new 
business opportunities for 2015 
and an increasingly sophisticated 
merchandising platform we are 
confident in the ongoing success of 
attraqt and in the outlook for 
2015 and beyond 
 
 
 
with a strong pipeline 
of new business 
opportunities for 2015 
and a sophisticated 
merchandising 
platform we are 
confident in the 
ongoing success of 
attraqt and in the 
outlook for 2015 and 
beyond 
andré brown 
chief executive officer 
   
 
 
25 
prezzybox 
case study 
 
the client an entirely virtual store 
prezzybox focuses on the market for 
online gift sales  
 
as such it depends on its ability to 
delivery fast relevant orders to every 
visitor in order to maximise conversions 
and revenue 
 
the challenge before discovering 
attraqt prezzybox was spending 
thousands of manhours on manual 
merchandising impacting on operating 
costs and risking a high margin for error  
 
the brand needed a new solution that 
would tackle these issues and generate 
real returns whilst ensuring that the 
customer experience remained second 
to none 
 
the solution prezzybox uses the entire 
freestyle merchandising portfolio across 
search visual merchandising and 
recommendations  
 
a key feature is the balance factor 
technology which enables prezzybox to 
balance its product placement strategy 
with the current business priorities for 
optimised revenue 
 
the result freestyle merchandising 
has achieved the ideal mix of improved 
sales and conversions with cost savings 
resulting in significantly increased 
revenue for prezzybox 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
100 
revenue growth in 2012 
 
65 
sales increase in 2013 
 
45 
revenue increase in 2014   
 
 
26 
life style sports 
case study 
 
the client carrying more than 60 
sports performance and sports fashion 
brands across 64 stores life style sports 
expanded into ecommerce in 2012 key 
to the company’s online strategy is the 
need to reflect its clever instore 
merchandising techniques in the digital 
arena 
 
the challenge a huge number of 
products and categories were impossible 
for life style sports to control within its 
own ecommerce platform a flexible 
solution was needed as was a simple 
user interface that could integrate 
seamlessly into everyday merchandising 
activities the system needed to deliver 
the highly targeted visual merchandising 
strategies that life style sports 
customers expect and respond to 
 
the solution freestyle merchandising 
provides sophisticated facet navigation 
that aligns to the individual customer’s 
search priorities – for example style 
colour or functionality intelligent search 
typeahead and synonyms have been 
deployed to enhance the search 
experience whilst attraqt’s balance 
factor technology enables specific 
merchandising strategies according to 
the time of day 
 
the result as well as concrete revenue 
generation life style sports can now do 
more with less respond to customer 
demands and stand out from 
competitors 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
33 
conversion increase 
 
  
the system is just 
unbelievable it’s a super 
product representing 
great value for money 
the roi is there and 
there’s a concrete 
business case for it 
gordon newman 
head of ecommerce life style sports   
 
 
27 
governance 
    
 
 
28 
board of directors      
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
dan wagner  
cofounder and chairman 
dan is a veteran british internet entrepreneur and businessman who founded 
maid plc market analysis information database in 1984 – a pioneer in online 
information services maid was listed on the london stock exchange in 1994 
and on nasdaq the following year and went on to become the world leader in 
online information capturing 26 of the world market before being sold in early 
2000 to thomson reuters  
 
in 1998 dan founded venda limited – a pioneer in ‘cloud based’ or ‘on demand’ 
ecommerce  which became the european market leader before being sold in 
june 2014 to netsuite inc a us based nyse listed cloud software market 
leader   
 
in 2003 dan set up attraqt with andré brown to improve search and 
merchandising in web based platforms and services 
 
most recently dan set up powa technologies plc a mobile ecommerce and 
retail point of sale platform for brands and merchants in which he has the role of 
chairman and chief executive officer  
 
 
andré brown  
cofounder and chief executive officer 
andré the cofounder and chief executive officer of the company has over 25 
years experience in developing innovative technologies he has been 
instrumental in the development of the company and has helped to grow its 
customer base from zero to a list of wellknown names in the retail arena 
 
previous positions include group mergers  acquisitions director for nettec plc 
strategic alliances director for maid plc chief executive officer of the 
ecommerce division of dialog plc and one of the leaders of the team that 
originally brought adobe acrobat to the uk marketplace 
 
andré holds a bsc in economics from the london school of economics and 
qualifications in corporate finance and marketing innovative technologies from 
the london business school and harvard business school respectively 
 
 
 
   
 
 
29 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
david stirling 
chief financial officer 
david is an experienced chief financial officer with a successful track record in 
charge of finance for several entrepreneurial businesses mainly in the 
technology sector including roles as finance director of two aim listed 
companies haemocell plc and brightview plc he has been the chief financial 
officer of bright station ventures since 2011 he has handled fundraising 
corporate restructuring and ma work in the last 10 years he has also been 
finance director of two private equity funded ecommerce businesses which both 
exited in trade sales david has been an investor in the company since 2013 
 
david has an honours degree in commerce from heriot watt university and is a 
fellow of the chartered institute of management accountants 
 
 
ivor dunbar 
independent nonexecutive director and deputy chairman 
chairman of the audit committee and member of the remuneration committee 
ivor is the chairman of project trust  he lives in london and is a non executive 
director of powa technologies ltd a financial technology company and bluefield 
harrier ltd a solar power company 
 
educated at inverness royal academy and university college of wales in 
aberystwyth ivor has spent most of his professional career as an investment 
banker with barclays de zoete wedd and until recently with deutsche bank 
 
ivor is a capital markets specialist and at deutsche he was head of global capital 
markets cohead of investment banking and a member of the executive 
committee of deutsche’s corporate and investment banking division 
 
ivor is a patron of the national trust for scotland and his interests include 
fishing shooting and racing classic cars 
 
ed ewing 
independent nonexecutive director 
chairman of the remuneration committee and member of the audit committee 
in a career spanning three decades ed has worked extensively as a senior 
executive in the technology media and telecommunications sectors in 
management sales and productservice development roles 
 
previous international roles have included working for apple in europe strategic   
 
 
30 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
planning and programme director for scootcom plc and managing operations in 
northern europe for quark inc he was responsible for establishing the digital 
division for global publisher boat international media including successfully 
launching boatinternationalcom and establishing it as one of the leading online 
market places for preowned superyachts 
 
along with advising a number of clients on strategy and business development 
ed has a portfolio of successful companies based in north norfolk where he now 
lives and most recently he was instrumental in raising over £750000 in funding 
from the heritage lottery fund and english heritage to help secure the future of 
one of the uks ancient monuments 
 
 
robert fenner 
nonexecutive director 
robert is a partner in the international law firm taylor wessing llp and has been 
a solicitor for 24 years  
 
he is a corporate lawyer specialising in advising companies on all aspects of 
corporate law including listings and mergers and acquisitions 
 
 
management team 
 
david phillips 
chief technology officer 
david has more than 25 years experience in the software technology sector 
including almost 10 years with ecommerce software david joined the company 
in 2013 as chief technology officer where his main responsibilities lie in product 
development platform management and technical client relationships david has 
a wealth of experience in business working for established public companies as 
well as founding several of his own companies 
 
 
mark turner 
chief commercial officer 
mark joined the company in 2010 as head of sales his main responsibility within 
this role is to boost the commercial growth of the business through new 
business and account development mark has considerable international 
experience having spent a substantial amount of his career based in the us and 
is well placed within the company after spending a number of years as the 
regional and business development director of various companies including 
dialog corp profound and maid plc   
 
 
31 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
matt conacher 
head of technology 
matt joined the company in 2004 as the companys first software engineer and 
has over a decade of web development experience particularly in retail having 
previously worked for john lewis he is the coarchitect of the companys 
freestyle merchandising platform and has been vital in supporting the 
companys initial customers through the process of integrating the companys 
software into their systems 
 
 
bernadine venter 
chief operating officer 
bernadine joined the company in 2009 before the launch of the freestyle 
merchandising platform prior to this she worked on the technical solutions 
team at a south african supply chain business developing the skills she now uses 
in the management of all of the new client implementations on freestyle 
merchandising and overseeing the development support and production teams 
bernadine uses her technical and business process knowledge to promote the 
companys service offering to potential and existing clients and partners 
 
 
    
 
 
32 
corporate governance report      
 
this is the first set of accounts prepared 
by the group as an aim listed company  
the board has reviewed the 
requirements of the uk corporate 
governance code and although it is not 
statutorily mandatory to comply with 
the code the group is working to 
implement it to the extent that it 
considers it appropriate to a company 
of its size and nature  the 
remuneration and audit committees 
were established following the 
company’s admission to aim on 19 
august 2014 and so are in their first 
year of operation 
 
1 the board of directors 
the details of the group’s board 
together with the audit and 
remuneration committees are set out 
on pages 28 to 30 and 34 to 37 the 
board meets quarterly and is 
responsible for the overall management 
of the group’s long term strategy and 
objectives and monitoring of 
performance  it oversees operations 
and ensures the maintenance of sound 
internal controls and risk management 
systems  certain matters are 
specifically reserved for the approval of 
the board including approval of 
significant capital expenditure material 
business contracts and corporate 
transactions 
 
to enable the board to discharge its 
duties all directors receive appropriate 
updates and timely information  the 
ceo has regular dialogue with all the 
directors and provides written updates 
to them at least twice a month 
 
at the end of the year the board 
consisted of two executive directors a 
nonexecutive chairman and three 
independent nonexecutive directors 
 
  
2 directors’ remuneration 
as set out on pages 35 to 37 the 
remuneration of the executive 
directors is determined by the 
remuneration committee the 
remuneration of the nonexecutive 
directors is determined by the 
chairman and the executive 
directors  the directors recognise 
the importance of performance 
related incentives and executive 
directors are paid bonuses as 
deemed appropriate by the 
remuneration committee 
 
3 relations with shareholders 
the group recognises the value of 
communications with its 
shareholders  as well as the 
statutorily required news releases 
via the stock exchange the group 
issues updates on matters that it 
considers of interest to 
shareholders and the wider 
investing public  it responds quickly 
to enquiries and requests from 
shareholders subject to the 
limitations of providing price 
sensitive information 
 
all shareholders receive at least 21 
days’ notice of the annual general 
meeting at which all of the directors 
and the chairman are normally 
available to answer questions from 
shareholders attending the meeting 
 
4 accountability and audit 
a financial reporting 
the chief executive’s statement 
contains detailed reviews of the 
performance and financial position 
of the group  the group uses this 
and the directors’ report on pages 
38 to 41 to present and explain the 
group’s financial position and 
performance  the directors’  
responsibility for the financial 
statements is described on page 40 
 
b internal control 
the board confirms that it has 
established the procedures 
necessary to implement the 
guidance set out in “internal control 
guidance for directors on the 
combined code”  the identification 
evaluation and management of risk 
has been considered by the board  
it is intended that this will continue 
to be kept under constant review 
and will be considered at each board 
meeting  the board continues to 
take steps to embed internal control 
and risk management further into 
the operations of the business and 
to deal with areas of improvement 
which come to management and 
board attention 
 
the directors acknowledge their 
responsibilities for the group’s 
system of internal control  such a 
system can provide reasonable but 
not absolute assurance against 
material misstatement or loss  the 
board confirms the procedures 
necessary to comply with the 
provisions of the code including the 
guidance of turnbull have been in 
place throughout the year ended 31 
december 2014 and up to the date 
of the directors’ report  it has 
considered the major business risks 
and the control environment  
important control procedures in 
addition to the day to day 
supervision of the business include 
comparison of monthly management 
accounts to the budget 
 
c audit committee and auditors 
the audit committee comprises ivor 
dunbar chairman and ed ewing    
 
 
33 
both nonexecutive directors  the 
auditors of the group may also attend 
part or all of each meeting and they 
have direct access to the committee for 
independent discussions without the 
presence of an executive director if 
required  the audit committee may 
examine any matters relating to the 
financial affairs of the group and the 
group’s audit  this includes reviews of 
the annual accounts and 
announcements accounting policies 
compliance with accounting standards 
the appointment of auditors and their 
fees and other such related functions as 
the board may require 
     
 
 
34 
audit committee report 
audit committee composition and terms of reference 
 
the audit committee is chaired by ivor 
dunbar and its other member is ed 
ewing the board has considered the 
independence of these directors and 
although mr dunbar has a holding of 
24 of the company it considers him 
and mr ewing to be independent non
executive directors  it meets as 
required and specifically to review the 
interim report and annual report and 
to consider the stability and 
effectiveness of the internal control 
processes the audit committee 
reviews the findings of the external 
auditor and reviews accounting 
policies and material accounting 
judgements 
 
the independence and effectiveness 
of the external auditor is reviewed 
annually the audit committee is able 
to meet separately with the external 
auditor without any executive director 
present to discuss their independence 
and objectivity the annual report any 
audit issues arising internal control 
processes appointment and fee levels 
and any other appropriate matters  
as well as providing audit related 
services the auditors also provide 
taxation advice  fees in respect of 
audit and tax service are disclosed in 
note 6 of the notes to the group 
financial statements the company 
paid fees of £60000 to bdo llp in 
respect of their services as reporting 
accountants for the company’s 
admission to aim on 19 august 2014 
since that date fees for nonaudit 
services paid to the auditors are not 
deemed to be of such significance as 
to impair their independence and 
therefore the audit committee 
considers that the objectivity and 
independence of the auditors is 
safeguarded  
 
internal control 
the board is responsible for 
establishing and maintaining the 
group’s system of internal control 
and for reviewing its effectiveness 
the system of internal control is 
designed to manage rather than 
eliminate the risk of failure of the 
achievement of business objectives 
and can only provide reasonable but 
not absolute assurance against 
material misstatement or loss 
 
the audit committee monitors and 
reviews the effectiveness of the 
system of internal control and 
reports to the board when 
appropriate with recommendations 
 
the main features of the internal 
control are 
 
• a control environment exists 
through the close management of 
the business by the executive 
directors the group has a defined 
organisation structure with 
delineated approval limits 
controls are implemented and 
monitored by the executive 
directors 
 
• the board has a schedule of 
matters expressly reserved for its 
consideration and this schedule 
includes acquisitions and 
disposals major capital projects 
treasury and risk management 
policies and approval of budgets 
 
• the group uses a detailed 
budgeting and forecasting 
process  budgets are prepared 
annually by the executive 
directors and submitted to the 
board for approval  forecasts 
including cash flow projections 	
  
 are updated at least quarterly 
to reflect changes in the 
business and are monitored by 
the board  actual results are 
monitored against the budget 
on a monthly basis with 
variances highlighted to the 
board	
  
 
• financial risks are identified and 
evaluated for any major 
transactions for consideration by 
the board and senior 
management 
 
• standard financial control 
procedures are operated 
throughout the group to ensure 
that the assets of the group are 
safeguarded and that proper 
accounting records are 
maintained 
 
   
 
 
35 
remuneration committee report 
remuneration committee composition and terms of reference 
 
the remuneration committee is 
chaired by ed ewing and its other 
member is ivor dunbar both of whom 
are independent nonexecutive 
directors the company’s chairman 
may attend committee meetings as an 
observer the remuneration 
committee is expected to meet not 
less than once a year and at such 
other times as required 
 
it has responsibility for determining 
within the agreed terms of reference 
the company’s policy on the 
remuneration packages of the 
company’s chief executive chairman 
and the executive directors the 
company secretary senior managers 
and such other members of the 
executive management as it is 
designated to consider the 
remuneration committee also has 
responsibility for determining within 
the terms of the company’s policy and 
in consultation with the chairman of 
the board andor the chief executive 
officer the total individual 
remuneration package for each 
executive director the company 
secretary and other designated senior 
executives including bonuses 
incentive payments and share options 
or other share awards the 
remuneration of nonexecutive 
directors is a matter for the chairman 
and executive directors of the board 
no director or manager is allowed to 
partake in any discussions as to their 
own remuneration in addition the 
remuneration committee has the 
responsibility for reviewing the 
structure size and composition 
including the skills knowledge and 
experience of the board and giving 
full consideration to succession 
planning it also has responsibility for 	
  
	
  
recommending new appointments 
to the board 
 
policy on executive directors’ 
remuneration 
executive remuneration packages 
are designed to attract and retain 
executives with the qualities and 
skills needed to run the group  the 
remuneration committee 
recommends to the board 
remuneration packages by 
reference to individual performance 
and uses the knowledge and 
experience of the committee 
members published surveys 
relating to aim companies and data 
on companies of similar size and in 
similar industries 
 
there are three main elements of 
the remuneration package for 
executive directors and staff 
 
• basic salaries and benefits in kind 
basic salaries are recommended 
to the board by the remuneration 
committee taking into account the 
performance of the individual and 
the rates for similar positions in 
comparable companies  benefits 
in kind comprising death in service 
and private medical insurance are 
available to all staff and executive 
directors 
 
• share options 
the group operates a share 
option scheme for the executive 
directors and other employees to 
motivate those individuals through 
equity participation  exercise of 
share options under the scheme is 
subject to specified exercise 
periods and compliance with the 
aim rules 
	
  
the scheme is overseen by the 
remuneration committee which 
recommends to the board all 
grants of share options based on 
the remuneration committee’s 
assessment of personal 
performance and specifying the 
terms under which eligible 
individuals may be invited to 
participate 
 
• bonus scheme 
the group has a discretionary 
bonus scheme for staff and 
executive directors 
 
service contracts 
the executive directors are 
employed under service contracts 
requiring six months’ notice by 
either party  nonexecutive 
directors and the chairman receive 
payments under appointment 
letters which are terminable by two 
months’ notice by either party  the 
service contracts of the non
executive directors are made 
available for inspection at the agm 
 
policy on nonexecutive 
directors’ remuneration 
one nonexecutive director 
receives a fee for his services as a 
director which is approved by the 
board mindful of the time 
commitment and responsibilities of 
the role and of current market 
rates for comparable organisations 
and appointments  all non
executive directors and the 
chairman are reimbursed for 
travelling and other incidental 
expenses incurred on group 
business 
   
 
 
36 
the emoluments of the directors were as follows 
 
year ended 31 december 2014
 
year ended 31 december 2013
 
 
salary  directors’ fees £
 
benefits in kind £
 
total £
 
total £
 
executive directors
 
    
andré brown
 
218400
 
1192
 
219592
 
206055
 
david stirling
 
68590
 
1775
 
70365
 

 
nonexecutive directors
 
   
dan wagner
 

 

 

 

 
ivor dunbar
 

 

 

 

 
ed ewing
 
7359
 

 
7359
 

 
robert fenner
 

 

 

 

 
totals
 
294349
 
2967
 
297316
 
206055
 
david stirling ivor dunbar and edward ewing joined the board on 19
th
 august 2014 the above fees and 
emoluments exclude reimbursed expenditure incurred in the conduct of group business 
 
directors’ interests in shares 
 
year ended 31 december 2014
 
year ended 31 december 2013 see note
 
andré brown
 
 
3280000
 
 
3280000
 
ivor dunbar
 
 
500000
 
 

 
david stirling
 
 
95000
 
 
95000
 
dan wagner
 
 
4981700
 
 
4981700
 
totals
 
 
8856700
 
 
8356700
 
 
   
 
 
37 
directors’ interests in share options 
 
executive director
 
grant date
 
no of share options granted
 
option price pence
 
date first exercisable expiry date
 
david stirling
 
1982014
 
177590
 
316
 
1982015 1982024
 
note shareholdings at 31
st
 december 2013 were in atttraqt limited on 14
th
 may 2014 a share for share swap 
took place with attraqt group plc one share in attraqt limited was exchanged for 100 shares in attraqt 
group plc the comparative for 2013 has been restated to reflect this share for share swap 
 
relative importance of spend on pay 
the following shows the group’s relative expenditure on employee pay compared to all other distributions  
 
 
2014 
£’000 
2013 
£’000
 
employee remuneration costs
 
1696
 
100
 
863
 
100
 
dividends paid on ordinary shares
 

 
0
 

 
0
 
 
1696
 
 
863
 
 
    
 
 
38 
directors report      
 
the directors present their report with the financial statements of the group and the company for the year ended 
31 december 2014 
 
results 
the group made a loss after tax in 2014 of £1414000 2013  £460000 on turnover of £2086000 2013  
£1581000 representing a loss of £008 per share £003 the net cash used in operating activities was £1058000 
2013  £324000   
 
dividends 
the board do not propose the payment of a dividend for the year 
 
directors 
the directors shown below held office during the reporting period and to the date of this report 
 
• dan wagner appointed 13
th
 may 2014	
  	
  
• andré brown appointed 20
th
 february 2014	
  
• david stirling appointed 19
th
 august 2014	
  
• ivor dunbar appointed 19
th
 august 2014	
  
• edward ewing appointed 19
th
 august 2014	
  
• robert fenner appointed 19
th
 august 2014	
  
 
 
the directors who served during the year and their beneficial interests in the shares of the group as recorded in 
the register of directors’ interests are as follows 
 
                               31 december 2014
 
31 december 2013
 
director
 
number of shares held
 
percentage holding
 
  number of shares held
 
percentage holding
 
dan wagner
 
4981700
 
241
 
4981700
 
281
 
andré brown
 
3280000
 
159
 
3280000
 
185
 
david stirling
 
95000
 
05
 
95000
 
05
 
ivor dunbar
 
500000
 
24
 

 

 
ed ewing
 

 

 

 

 
robert fenner
 

 

 

 

 
the comparative for 2013 has been restated to reflect the share for share swap 
    
 
 
39 
the directors who served during the year and their beneficial interests in share options of the group as recorded in 
the register of directors’ interests are as follows 
 
                            31 december 2014
 
                               31 december 2013
 
 
number of options held
 
 
  
 
number of options held
 
david stirling
 
177590
 
  

 
substantial interests 
on 25
th
 february 2015 the following parties had notified the group of a beneficial interest that represents 3 or 
more of the group’s issued share capital at that date 
 
 
number of shares held
 
 
percentage holding 
 
dan wagner
 
4981700
 
 
241
 
bright station ventures limited 4843000 
 
235 
andré brown 3280000 
 
159 
alan docter 2086394 
 
101 
john wagner 1417900 
 
69 
david weinberger 761100 
 
37 
paul davenport 621400 
 
30 
 
 
dan wagner is a director of and shareholder in bright station ventures limited 
 
qualifying third party indemnity provisions 
the group has granted an indemnity to one or more of its directors against liability in respect of proceedings 
brought by third parties subject to the conditions set out in the companies act 2006 such qualifying third party 
indemnity provision remains in force as at the date of approving the directors’ report 
 
the group purchases directors and officers insurance against their cost in defending themselves in legal 
proceedings taken against them in that capacity and in respect of damages resulting from the unsuccessful defence 
of any proceedings 
 
financial instruments 
details of the group’s risk management objectives and policies together with its exposure to financial risk are set 
out in note 3 to the financial statements 
 
 
   
 
 
40 
going concern 
the directors have prepared a cash flow forecast covering a period extending beyond 12 months from the date of 
these financial statements the forecast contains assumptions about the performance of the business these 
assumptions are the directors’ best estimate of the future development of the business including consideration of 
cash reserves required to support working capital and its growth plans these plans include sales expansion in the 
uk and the usa growth rate assumptions for the uk have been based on the historic actual growth of the group 
since 2011 through the newly operational american subsidiary the directors remain confident of the group’s ability 
to tap into the american market and fuel further growth in the group’s activities 
 
on 8
th
 january 2015 the group secured a new overdraft facility from barclays providing an additional £50000 in 
cash available for immediate drawdown 
 
the cash flow forecast prepared shows the group will have sufficient headroom against available facilities based on 
the revenue growth assumptions 
 
on the basis of this forecast the directors have a reasonable expectation that the group has adequate resources to 
continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future they therefore continue to adopt the going concern 
basis of accounting in preparing the annual financial statements 
 
events after the reporting period 
there are no events after the date of this report or the date the financial statements were approved by the board of 
directors which impact on the figures presented 
 
listing 
the group’s ordinary shares have been traded on the london alternative investment market aim since 19 august 
2014  n1 singer are the group’s nominated advisors and brokers  the closing midmarket share price at 31 
december 2014 was 535p 
statement of directors’ responsibilities 
 
directors’ responsibilities 
the directors are responsible for preparing the strategic report the directors’ report and the financial statements in 
accordance with applicable law and regulations  
 
company law requires the directors to prepare group and company financial statements for each financial year  
under that law the directors have elected to prepare the group and company financial statements in accordance 
with international financial reporting standards ifrss as adopted by the european union  under company law 
the directors must not approve the financial statements unless they are satisfied that they give a true and fair view 
of the state of affairs of the group and company and of the profit or loss of the group for that period  the directors 
are also required to prepare financial statements in accordance with the rules of the london stock exchange for 
companies trading securities on the alternative investment market   
 
in preparing these financial statements the directors are required to 
 
• select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently 
 
• make judgements and accounting estimates that are reasonable and prudent 
 
• state whether they have been prepared in accordance with ifrss as adopted by the european union subject to 
any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements   
 
 
41 
 
• prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the 
company will continue in business 
 
the directors are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that are sufficient to show and explain the 
company’s transactions and disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the company and 
enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the requirements of the companies act 2006  
they are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the company and hence for taking reasonable steps for the 
prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities 
 
website publication 
the directors are responsible for ensuring the annual report and the financial statements are made available on a 
website  financial statements are published on the companys website in accordance with legislation in the united 
kingdom governing the preparation and dissemination of financial statements which may vary from legislation in 
other jurisdictions  the maintenance and integrity of the companys website is the responsibility of the directors  
the directors responsibility also extends to the ongoing integrity of the financial statements contained therein 
 
key future developments 
the group plans to continue its development of both the uk and us markets building on its success in signing new 
clients in 2014 
 
it will also continue the development of new products and product enhancements using its internal expertise and 
jointly with technology partners the selection of developments to be undertaken is based on feedback from 
existing and prospective clients and prioritised according to the return they can be expected to generate 
 
statement as to disclosure of information to auditors 
so far as the directors are aware there is no relevant audit information as defined by section 418 of the 
companies act 2006 of which the group’s auditors are unaware and each director has taken all the steps that he 
ought to have taken as a director in order to make himself aware of any relevant audit information and to establish 
that the group’s auditors are aware of that information 
 
auditors 
the auditors bdo llp will be proposed for reappointment at the forthcoming annual general meeting 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
david stirling 
director 
 
date 26
th
 february 2015 
 
 
    
 
 
42 
report of independent auditors  
independent auditor’s report to the members of attraqt group plc 
 
we have audited the financial 
statements of attraqt group plc for the 
year ended 31 december 2014 which 
comprise the consolidated statement 
of comprehensive income the 
consolidated statement of financial 
position the company statement of 
financial position the consolidated 
statement of cash flows the 
consolidated statement of changes in 
equity and the related notes  the 
financial reporting framework that has 
been applied in their preparation is 
applicable law and international 
financial reporting standards ifrss 
as adopted by the european union 
and as regards the parent company 
financial statements as applied in 
accordance with the provisions of the 
companies act 2006  
 
this report is made solely to the 
company’s members as a body in 
accordance with chapter 3 of part 16 
of the companies act 2006  our audit 
work has been undertaken so that we 
might state to the company’s members 
those matters we are required to state 
to them in an auditor’s report and for 
no other purpose  to the fullest extent 
permitted by law we do not accept or 
assume responsibility to anyone other 
than the company and the company’s 
members as a body for our audit work 
for this report or for the opinions we 
have formed 
 
respective responsibilities of 
directors and auditors 
as explained more fully in the 
statement of directors’ responsibilities 
the directors are responsible for the 
preparation of the financial statements 
and for being satisfied that they give a 
true and fair view  
our responsibility is to audit and 
express an opinion on the financial 
statements in accordance with 
applicable law and international 
standards on auditing uk and 
ireland  those standards require 
us to comply with the financial 
reporting council’s frc’s ethical 
standards for auditors  
 
scope of the audit of the financial 
statements 
a description of the scope of an 
audit of financial statements is 
provided on the frc’s website at 
wwwfrcorgukauditscopeukprivate 
 
opinion on financial statements 
in our opinion  
 
• the financial statements give a 
true and fair view of the state of 
the group’s and the parent 
company’s affairs as at 31 
december 2014 and of the 
group’s loss for the year then 
ended 
 
• the group financial statements 
have been properly prepared in 
accordance with ifrss as adopted 
by the european union 
 
• the parent company financial 
statements have been properly 
prepared in accordance with ifrss 
as adopted by the european 
union and as applied in 
accordance with the provisions of 
the companies act 2006 and 
 
• the financial statements have 
been prepared in accordance with 
the requirements of the 
companies act 2006  
opinion on other matters 
prescribed by the companies act 
2006 
in our opinion the information given 
in the strategic report and directors’ 
report for the financial year for 
which the financial statements are 
prepared is consistent with the 
financial statements  
	
  
matters on which we are required 
to report by exception 
we have nothing to report in respect 
of the following matters where the 
companies act 2006 requires us to 
report to you if in our opinion 
 
• adequate accounting records have 
not been kept by the parent 
company or returns adequate for 
our audit have not been received 
from branches not visited by us or 
 
• the parent company financial 
statements are not in agreement 
with the accounting records and 
returns or 
 
• certain disclosures of directors’ 
remuneration specified by law are 
not made or 
 
• we have not received all the 
information and explanations we 
require for our audit 
 
andrew viner senior statutory auditor 
for and on behalf of 
bdo llp statutory auditor 
london united kingdom 
date 27
th
 february 2015 
 
bdo llp is a limited liability partnership 
registered in england and wales with 
registered number oc305127 
 
	
    
 
 
43 
company financial statements 
attraqt group plc  consolidated 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
   
 
 
44 
consolidated statement of comprehensive income  
for the year to 31
st
 december 2014 
 
 
note
 
  year to 31 december 2014 
£’000 
 
year to 31 december 2013 
£’000
 
revenue
 
4
 
2086
 
1581
 
cost of sales
  
399
 
294
 
gross profit  1687 1287 
administrative expense  2736 1845 
exceptional administrative expense 5 484  
total administrative expenses  3220 1845 
loss from operations 6 1533 558 
loss before tax  1533 558 
tax credit 8 119 98 
loss for the year  1414 460 
consolidated statements of comprehensive income  
 
 
 
  year to 31 december 2014 
£’000
 
year to 31 december 2013 
£’000
 
loss for the year
  
1414
 
460
 
other comprensive income    
items that will be reclassified subsequently to profit or loss 
exchange differences on translation of foreign operations 
  
26 
 
 
total other comprehensive income  26  
total comprehensive loss for the year attributable to 
shareholders of the parent 
  
1440 
 
460 
loss per share attributable to the ordinary equity holders 
of the company 
basic and diluted 
 
 
9 
 
 
8p 
 
 
3p 
 
the notes on pages 48 to 66 form part of these financial statements 
    
 
 
45 
consolidated statement of financial position  
as at 31
st
 december 2014 
 
the financial statements on pages 44 to 47 were authorized by the board of directors on 26
th
 february 2015 and 
were signed on behalf of 
 
david stirling 
director 
company number 8904529 
the accompanying accounting policies and notes form an integral part of these financial statements 
 
note
 
2014 
£’000  
2013 
£’000
 
assets
    
noncurrent assets
    
property plant and equipment 11
 
50 70 
intangible assets 12
 
120 120 
  170 190 
current assets    
trade and other receivables 13 310 333 
corporation tax recoverable 13 119  
cash and cash equivalents 19 307 261 
  736 594 
total assets  906 784 
liabilities    
current liabilities    
trade and other payables 14 540 376 
total liabilities  540 376 
net assets  366 408 
issued capital and reserves attributable to owners of the parent    
share capital 16 206 177 
share premium  1252  
merger reserve  1457 1457 
equity component of convertible debt 15  45 
share based payment reserve  222 60 
foreign exchange reserve  26  
retained earnings  2745 1331 
total equity  366 408   
 
 
46 
consolidated statement of cash flows  
for the year ended 31
st
 december 2014 
 
note
 
 2014 
£’000
 
2013 
£’000
 
cash flows from operating activities
    
loss for the year
  
1414
 
460
 
adjustments for 
depreciation of property plant and equipment 
 
10
 
 
35 
 
34 
amortisation of intangible fixed assets 11
 
131 131 
income tax credit 8  98 
share based payment expense 16 162 60 
foreign exchange loss  40  
  1126 333 
increase in trade and other receivables  96 33 
increasedecrease in trade and other payables  164 43 
cash used in operations  1058 409 
income taxes received   85 
net cash flows from operating activities  1058 324 
investing activities    
purchase of property plant and equipment  10 15 58 
development of intangibles 11 131 97 
net cash used in investing activities  146 155 
financing activities    
issue of ordinary shares net of issue costs  1295 693 
repayment of debt  45  
net cash from investing and financing activities  1104 538 
net increase in cash and cash equivalents  46 214 
cash and cash equivalents at beginning of year  261 47 
cash and cash equivalents at end of year 3 307 261 
 
 
the accompanying accounting policies and notes form an integral part of these financial statements    
 
 
47 
consolidated statement of changes in equity  
for the year ended 31
st
 december 2014 
 
 
reserves 
the following describes the nature and purpose of each reserve within equity 
 
reserve    description and purpose 
share premium   amount subscribed for share capital in excess of nominal value 
 
other reserve amount of proceeds on issue of convertible debt relating to the equity component ie 
option to convert the debt into share capital  
 
merger reserve the merger reserve results from the application of merger accounting on the 
acquisition of attraqt inc and attraqt limited accounting for the transaction was on 
a merger basis 
 
share based payment reserve the share based payment reserve represents equity settled share based employee 
remuneration until such share options are exercised 
 
foreign exchange reserve the difference arising on the translation of the assets and liabilities of the overseas 
subsidiary company into the functional currency of the group  
 
retained earnings all other net gains and losses and transactions with owners eg dividends not 
recognised elsewhere 
 
 
the accompanying accounting policies and notes form an integral part of these financial statements  
 
 
share 
capital 
share 
premium 
other 
reserve 
merger 
reserve 
 
 
 
share based 
payment reserve 
foreign exchange 
reserve 
retained 
earnings 
total 
equity 
 
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 
         
1 january 2013 177  45 1457   871 808 
loss for the year       460 460 
share based payment 
charge 
    60   60 
31 december 2013 177  45 1457 60  1331 408 
loss for the year       1414 1414 
translation of foreign entity      26  26 
total comprehensive 
income for the year 
     26 1414 1440 
share based payment 
charge 
    162   162 
issue of share capital 29 1252 45     1236 
31 december 2014 206 1252  1457 222 26 2745 366   
 
 
48 
notes to the consolidated financial statements 
for the year ended 31
st
 december 2014 
 
1 accounting policies 
general information 
the principal activity of attraqt group plc “the company” and its subsidiaries together “the group” is the 
development and provision of ecommerce site search merchandising and product recommendation 
technology 
 
the principal trading subsidiaries are attraqt limited and attraqt inc  
 
the company is a public limited company which is quoted on the alternative investment market of the london 
stock exchange and is incorporated and domiciled in the uk the address of the registered office is heron 
tower 35th floor 110 bishopsgate london ec2n 4ay 
 
the registered number of the company is 8904529  
 
basis of preparation 
the consolidated financial statements are for the year ended 31 december 2014  they have been prepared in 
compliance with international financial reporting standards ifrss and ifrs interpretations committee ifric 
interpretations as adopted by the european union as at 31 december 2014 and those parts of the companies 
act 2006 applicable to companies reporting under ifrs the consolidated financial statements have been 
prepared under the historical cost convention and are presented in sterling rounded to the nearest thousand 
except where indicated otherwise 
 
a business combination is a ‘‘common control combination’’ if the combining entities are ultimately controlled by 
the same party including the same individual shareholder or a group of shareholders acting together in 
accordance with a contractual arrangement both before and after the combination and the common control is 
not transitory  
 
for the purposes of the consolidated financial information the creation of the attraqt group plc has been 
treated as a business combination involving entities under common control business combinations involving 
entities under common control fall outside the scope of ifrs 3 business combinations in accordance with ias 8 
accounting policies changes in accounting estimates and errors management have considered the 
pronouncements of other standardsetting bodies in developing an accounting policy for common control 
combinations 
 
the group has adopted frs 6 acquisitions and mergers as allowed under ifrs and companies act 2006 as a 
basis of preparation of these financial statements 
 
going concern 
the financial statements have been prepared under the going concern basis as the directors have undertaken a 
review of the future financing requirements of the ongoing operation of the group and are satisfied that 
sufficient cash together with bank and other facilities is available to meet its working capital requirements for at 
least 12 months from the date of signing these financial statements the directors accordingly consider it 
appropriate for the financial statements to be prepared on a going concern basis as disclosed on page 40 of the 
directors report 
 
 
   
 
 
49 
changes in accounting policies 
the following standards amendments and interpretations became effective and were applied for the first time 
this year 
 
standardinterpretation content applicable for financial 
years beginning onafter 
ias 27 separate financial 
statements 
the amendment contains accounting and 
disclosure requirements for investment in 
subsidiaries joint ventures and associates when an 
entity prepares separate financial statements 
1
st
 january 2014 
 
ias 32 offsetting financial 
assets and financial liabilities 
 
the amendment seeks to clarify rather than 
change the offsetting requirements previously set 
out in ias 32 
 
1
st
 january 2014 
 
ifrs 10 consolidated 
financial statements 
 
the new standard replaces the consolidation 
requirements previously contained in ias 27 
consolidated and separate financial statements 
and sic12 consolidation  special purpose entities 
 
1
st
 january 2014 
 
ifrs 11 joint arrangements 
 
 
the new standard requires that a party to a joint 
arrangement recognises its rights and obligations 
arising from the arrangements rather than focusing 
on the legal form 
 
1
st
 january 2014 
 
ifrs 12 disclosure of 
interests in other entities 
 
 
the standard includes the disclosure requirements 
for all forms of interest in other entities including 
subsidiaries joint arrangements associates and 
unconsolidated structured entities 
 
1
st
 january 2014 
 
 
the directors continue to monitor the impact of future changes to the reporting requirements but do not 
believe the proposed changes will significantly impact the financial statements  
 
standards amendments and interpretations to existing standards that are not yet effective and have 
not been early adopted by the group in the 31
st
 december 2014 financial statements 
at the date of authorisation of these financial statements certain new standards amendments and 
interpretations to existing standards applicable to the group have been published but are not yet effective and 
have not been adopted early by the group  
 
 
 
 
 
 
   
 
 
50 
standardinterpretation content applicable for financial 
years beginning onafter 
 
ifrs 9 financial instruments 
2009 and amendment 
 
 
the standard will eventually replace ias 39 in its 
entirety however the process has been divided 
into three main components classification and 
measurement impairment and hedge accounting 
 
1
st
 january 2018 
 
ifrs 15 revenue from 
contracts with customers 
 
 
the core principle of ifrs 15 is that an entity will 
recognise revenue to depict the transfer of 
promised goods or services to customers in an 
amount that reflects the consideration to which the 
entity expects to be entitled in exchange for those 
goods or services the impact of adopting ifrs 15 
for attraqt group plc would not be significant 
 
1
st
 january 2017 
 
 
basis of consolidation 
where the company has control over an investee it is classified as a subsidiary the company controls an 
investee if all three of the following elements are present power over the investee exposure to variable returns 
from the investee and the ability of the investor to use its power to affect those variable returns control is 
reassessed whenever facts and circumstances indicate that there may be a change in any of these elements of 
control  
   
the consolidated financial statements present the results of the company and its subsidiaries the group as 
if they formed a single entity intercompany transactions and balances between group companies are therefore 
eliminated in full  
 
the consolidated financial statements incorporate the results of business combinations using the acquisition 
method  in the statement of financial position the acquirees identifiable assets liabilities and contingent 
liabilities are initially recognised at their fair values at the acquisition date the results of acquired operations are 
included in the consolidated statement of comprehensive income from the date on which control is obtained 
they are deconsolidated from the date of which control ceases 
 
revenue 
revenue represents sales to external customers at invoiced amounts less value added tax or local taxes on 
sales where work is completed at the year end but not invoiced the attraqt group accrues for this income 
 
the group derives the majority of its revenue from the provision of ecommerce site services to online retailers 
which includes site search merchandising and product recommendation technology  these are recurring 
revenues that are recognised on a monthly basis 
 
revenue from services provided by the attraqt group is recognised when the attraqt group has performed 
its obligations and in exchange obtained the right to consideration which can be reliably measured and it is 
probable economic benefits will flow to the entity 
 
if amounts have been invoiced in advance for services these amounts are deferred until the service has been 
provided to the client at which point the income is recognised within the attraqt group income is recognised 
across two streams   
 
 
51 
 
• recurring revenues – a monthly subscription fee is earned from customers to the software as a service 
platform operation of the service is provided for a fixed term 
 
• oneoff fees – work is undertaken for existing clients to expand or upgrade the service they receive and this is 
billed for separately  revenue is recognised on stage of completion on this work  stage of completion is 
calculated based on estimated hours to complete the work versus the number of hours already done 
 
interest is recognised using the effective interest rate method 
 
expenses are recognised on an accruals basis and upon utilisation of the service operating expenses are 
recognised in the income statement upon utilisation of the service or at the date of their origin 
 
foreign currency 
transactions entered into by group entities in a currency other than the currency of the primary economic 
environment in which it operates the functional currency are recorded at the rates ruling when the 
transactions occur  foreign currency monetary assets and liabilities are translated at the rates ruling at the 
reporting date  exchange differences arising on the retranslation of unsettled monetary assets and liabilities are 
recognised immediately in profit or loss 
 
on consolidation the results of overseas operations are translated into sterling pounds at rates approximating 
to those ruling when the transactions took place all assets and liabilities of overseas operations including 
goodwill arising on the acquisitions of those operations are translated at the rate ruling at the reporting date 
exchange differences arising on translating the opening net assets at opening rate and the results of overseas 
operations at actual rate are recognised in other comprehensive income and accumulated in the foreign 
exchange reserve  
 
 exchange differences recognised in profit or loss in group entities separate financial statements on the 
translation of longterm monetary items forming part of the group’s net investment in the overseas operation 
concerned are reclassified to other comprehensive income and accumulated in the foreign exchange reserve on 
consolidation  
 
financial assets 
loans and receivables 
these assets are nonderivative financial assets with fixed or determinable payments that are not quoted in an 
active market  they arise principally through the provision of services to customers eg trade receivables but 
also incorporate other types of contractual monetary asset  they are initially recognised at fair value plus 
transaction costs that are directly attributable to their acquisition or issue and are subsequently carried at 
amortised cost using the effective interest rate method less provision for impairment  
 
impairment provisions are recognised when there is objective evidence such as significant financial difficulties 
on the part of the counterparty or default or significant delay in payment that the group will be unable to collect 
all of the amounts due under the terms receivable the amount of such a provision being the difference between 
the net carrying amount and the present value of the future expected cash flows associated with the impaired 
receivable  for trade receivables which are reported net such provisions are recorded in a separate allowance 
account with the loss being recognised within administrative expenses in the consolidated statement of 
comprehensive income  on confirmation that the trade receivable will not be collectable the gross carrying 
value of the asset is written off against the associated provision 
 
from time to time the group elects to renegotiate the terms of trade receivables due from customers with   
 
 
52 
which it has previously had a good trading history  such renegotiations will lead to changes in the timing of 
payments rather than changes to the amounts owed and in consequence the new expected cash flows are 
discounted at the original effective interest rate and any resulting difference to the carrying value is recognised in 
the consolidated statement of comprehensive income operating profit 
 
the groups loans and receivables comprise trade and other receivables and cash and cash equivalents in the 
consolidated statement of financial position their carrying value approximates fair value at both reporting dates 
 
cash and cash equivalents 
cash and cash equivalents includes cash in hand deposits held at call with banks other short term highly liquid 
investments with original maturities of three months or less and  for the purpose of the statement of cash flows 
 bank overdrafts  
 
financial liabilities 
other financial liabilities  
other financial liabilities include the following items 
 
• trade payables and other shortterm monetary liabilities which are initially recognised at fair value and  
subsequently carried at amortised cost using the effective interest method  
• bank overdrafts are shown within loans and borrowings in current liabilities on the consolidated statement of 
financial position 
 
leases 
where the risks and rewards of ownership of an asset are transferred to the group as lessee the lease is treated 
as a finance lease other leases are treated as operating leases future instalments payable under finance leases 
net of finance charges are included in creditors with the corresponding asset values recorded in property plant 
and equipment and depreciated over the shorter of their estimated useful lives or their lease terms lease 
payments are apportioned between the finance element which is charged to the income statement as interest 
and the capital element which reduces the outstanding obligation for future instalments 
 
payments under operating leases are charged to the statement of comprehensive income on a straight line basis 
over the lease term 
 
share capital 
financial instruments issued by the group are classified as equity only to the extent that they do not meet the 
definition of a financial liability or financial asset 
 
the group’s ordinary shares are classified as equity instruments 
 
income taxes 
current income tax assets and liabilities comprise those obligations to fiscal authorities in the countries in which 
the group carries out its operations they are calculated according to the tax rates and tax laws applicable to the 
fiscal period and the country to which they relate all changes to current tax liabilities are recognised as a 
component of tax expense in the income statement unless the tax relates to an item taken directly to equity in 
which case the tax is also taken directly to equity tax relating to items recognised in other comprehensive 
income is recognised in other comprehensive income   
 
deferred taxation 
deferred tax assets and liabilities are recognised where the carrying amount of an asset or liability in the 
consolidated statement of financial position differs from its tax base except for differences arising on   
 
 
53 
 
• the initial recognition of goodwill  
• the initial recognition of an asset or liability in a transaction which is not a business combination and at the time      
of the transaction affects neither accounting or taxable profit and  
• investments in subsidiaries and jointly controlled entities where the group is able to control the timing of the 
reversal of the difference and it is probable that the difference will not reverse in the foreseeable future 
 
recognition of deferred tax assets is restricted to those instances where it is probable that taxable profit will be 
available against which the difference can be utilised 
 
the amount of the asset or liability is determined using tax rates that have been enacted or substantively 
enacted by the reporting date and are expected to apply when the deferred tax liabilitiesassets are 
settledrecovered  
 
deferred tax assets and liabilities are offset when the group has a legally enforceable right to offset current tax 
assets and liabilities and the deferred tax assets and liabilities relate to taxes levied by the same tax authority on 
either 
 
• the same taxable company or 
• different company entities which intend either to settle current tax assets and liabilities on a net basis or to 
realise the assets and settle the liabilities simultaneously in each future period in which significant amounts of 
deferred tax assets or liabilities are expected to be settled or recovered 
 
segmental reporting 
for the purpose of ifrs 8 the chief operating decision maker codm takes the form of the board of directors 
the directors’ opinion is that the business of the group is to provide cloud based ecommerce solutions  based 
on this there is considered to be one reportable segment the internal and external reporting is on a 
consolidated basis with transactions between group companies eliminated on consolidation therefore the 
financial information of the single segment is the same as that set out in the consolidated statement of 
comprehensive income the consolidated statement of changes in equity the consolidated statement of financial 
position and statement of cash flows 
 
internally generated intangible assets development costs 
expenditure on internally developed products is capitalised if it can be demonstrated that 
 
• it is technically feasible to develop the product for it to be sold 
• adequate resources are available to complete the development 
• there is an intention to complete and sell the product 
• the group is able to sell the product 
• sale of the product will generate future economic benefits and 
• expenditure on the project can be measured reliably 
 
capitalised development costs are amortised over the periods the group expects to benefit from selling the 
products developed the amortisation expense is included within administrative expenses in the consolidated 
statement of comprehensive income  
 
development expenditure not satisfying the above criteria and expenditure on the research phase of internal 
projects are recognised in the consolidated statement of comprehensive income as incurred 
   
 
 
54 
 
property plant and equipment 
items of property plant and equipment are initially recognised at cost  as well as the purchase price cost 
includes directly attributable costs and the estimated present value of any future unavoidable costs of 
dismantling and removing items  the corresponding liability is recognised within provisions 
 
property plant and equipment is depreciated over its estimated useful economic life taking into account their 
residual values the estimated useful economic life of these assets is 
 
plant and machinery   4 years 
fixtures and fittings   4 years 
 
share based payments 
the group has issued share options to certain employees in return for which the group receives services from 
those employees the fair value of the employee services received in exchange for the grant of the options is 
recognised as an expense 
 
the total amount to be expensed is determined by reference to the fair value of the options granted including 
any market performance conditions for example the company’s share price but excluding the impact of any 
service or non market performance vesting conditions for example the requirement of the grantee to remain an 
employee of the group 
 
non market vesting conditions are included in the assumptions regarding the number of options that are 
expected to vest the total expense is recognised over the vesting period at the end of each period the group 
revises its estimates of the number of options expected to vest based on the non market vesting conditions it 
recognises the impact of any revision in the income statement with a corresponding adjustment to equity 
 
 
2 significant accounting judgements and estimates 
the group makes certain estimates and assumptions regarding the future  estimates and judgements are 
continually evaluated based on historical experience and other factors including expectations of future events 
that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances  in the future actual experience may differ from 
these estimates and assumptions  the estimates and assumptions that have a significant risk of causing a 
material adjustment to the carrying amounts of assets and liabilities within the next financial year are discussed 
below 
 
revenue recognition 
some revenue is recognised based on the percentage of completion of the work involved as described above 
under the note on revenue  the rest of the income recognised in the income statement is not subject to 
estimation or judgement 
 
period over which options will be exercised 
the estimate used for the calculation of the cost recognised in the income statement of awarding options to 
staff is the best estimate of the directors at the date of award as to the likely date when the options will be 
exercised 
 
economic useful lives of plant and equipment 
the period over which purchased assets are depreciated is based on the directors’ estimate of their likely useful 
lives based on historic experience and anticipated changes in technology the periods used are shown in note 1 
 
   
 
 
55 
capitalisation of development costs 
it is a requirement under ifrs that development costs that meet the criteria prescribed in the standard are 
capitalised the assessment of each project requires that a judgement is made as to the commercial viability and 
the ability of the company to bring the product to market   
 
 
3 financial instruments – risk management 
the company is exposed through its operations to the following financial risks 
• credit risk 
• foreign exchange risk 
• liquidity risk 
 
in common with all other businesses the group is exposed to risks that arise from its use of financial 
instruments  this note describes the groups objectives policies and processes for managing those risks and 
the methods used to measure them  further quantitative information in respect of these risks is presented 
throughout these financial statements 
 
there have been no substantive changes in the groups exposure to financial instrument risks its objectives 
policies and processes for managing those risks or the methods used to measure them from previous periods 
unless otherwise stated in this note 
 
principal financial instruments 
the principal financial instruments used by the group from which financial instrument risk arises are as follows 
 
• trade receivables  
• cash and cash equivalents 
• trade and other payables 
 
a summary of the financial instruments held by category is provided below 
 
financial liabilities 
a summary of financial liabilities can be found in note 14 all financial liabilities held by the group at 31 
december 2014 are classified as held at amortised cost 
 
financial assets
  
2014 
£’000
 
2013 
£’000 
current 
trade receivables 
  
240
 
 
292
 
other receivables  70 41 
  310 333 
cash and cash equivalents – loans and receivables  307 261 
total loans and receivables  573 553 
 
all financial assets held by the group at 31 december 2014 are classified as loans and receivables and there is 
no difference between the carrying amount and the fair value  
   
 
 
56 
at 31 december 2014 the three largest customers owed a total of £96000  the directors do not consider that 
there is any reason to provide against any part of this balance 
 
financial liabilities
  
2014 
£’000
 
2013 
£’000
 
trade payables 
 
214 109 
other payables  187 106 
  403 215 
 
all financial liabilities held by the group at 31 december 2014 are classified as held at amortised cost 
 
general objectives policies and processes 
the board has overall responsibility for the determination of the companys risk management objectives and 
policies and whilst retaining ultimate responsibility for them it has delegated the authority for designing and 
operating processes that ensure the effective implementation of the objectives and policies to the companys 
chief executive officer  the board receives quarterly reports from the company chief financial officer through 
which it reviews the effectiveness of the processes put in place and the appropriateness of the objectives and 
policies it sets 
 
the overall objective of the board is to set policies that seek to reduce risk as far as possible without unduly 
affecting the companys competitiveness and flexibility  further details regarding these policies are set out 
below 
 
credit risk 
credit risk is the risk of financial loss to the group if a customer or counterparty to a financial instrument fails to 
meet its contractual obligations the group is mainly exposed to credit risk from credit sales  it is group policy 
implemented locally to assess the credit risk of new customers before entering contracts  such credit ratings 
take into account local business practices 
 
credit risk also arises from cash and cash equivalents and deposits with banks and financial institutions for 
banks and financial institutions only independently rated parties with minimum rating a are accepted 
further disclosures regarding trade and other receivables are provided in note 13 
 
cash at bank 
a significant amount of cash is held with the following institutions 
 
financial liabilities
  
balance at 31 december 2014 
£’000
 
balance at 31 december 2013 
£’000
 
barclays bank plc 
 
298 250 
citibank  9 11 
 
 
on 8 january 2015 the group obtained an overdraft facility with barclays bank for up to £50000  this is 
available for immediate drawdown  it is secured over the assets of attraqt limited 
 
foreign exchange risk 
foreign exchange risk arises when the group enters into transactions denominated in a currency other than the 
functional currency  the groups policy is where possible to allow entities to settle liabilities denominated in   
 
 
57 
their functional currency primarily sterling pounds with the cash generated from their own operations in that 
currency in order to monitor the continuing effectiveness of this policy the ceo reviews a monthly forecast 
analysed by the major currencies held by the group of liabilities due for settlement and expected cash reserves 
 
liquidity risk 
liquidity risk arises from the groups management of working capital  the group manages the risk that it will 
encounter difficulty in meeting its financial obligations as they fall due by forecasting its short term cash position 
on a regular basis 
 
the groups policy is to ensure that it will always have sufficient cash to allow it to meet its liabilities when they 
become due  to achieve this aim it seeks to maintain cash balances or agreed facilities to meet expected 
requirements for a period of at least 30 days 
 
the board receives rolling 12month cash flow projections on a quarterly basis as well as information regarding 
cash balances  at the end of the financial year these projections indicated that the group expected to have 
sufficient liquid resources to meet its obligations under all reasonably expected circumstances 
 
in the management of liquidity risk the group monitors and tries to maintain a level of cash and cash equivalents 
deemed adequate by management to finance the group’s operations and mitigate the effects of fluctuations in 
cash flows 
 
the following table sets out the contractual maturities representing undiscounted contractual cashflows of 
financial liabilities 
 
 
 
up to 3 months 
£’000 
between 3 and 12 months 
£’000 
between 1 and 2 years 
£’000 
between 2 and 5 years 
£’000 
over 5 years 
£’000 
at 31
st
 december 2013      
trade and other payables 301     
total 301     
 
 
 
up to 3 months 
£’000 
between 3 and 12 months 
£’000 
between 1 and 2 years 
£’000 
between 2 and 5 years 
£’000 
over 5 years 
£’000 
at 31
st
 december 2014      
trade and other payables 430 11    
total 430 11    
 
 
4 revenue 
  
2014 
£’000
 
2013 
£’000
 
revenue arises from the rendering of services 
recurring revenues 
 
 
1922 
 
1476 
oneoff fees 
 
164 105 
total rendering 
 
2086 1581 
   
 
 
58 
three customers each are responsible for more than 10 of the revenue of the company the total amount for 
all three is £918000 which amounts to over 44 of the revenue of the company however the directors are not 
concerned about continuance of these relationships 
 
 
5 exceptional expenses 
 
exceptional expenses of £484000 in 2014 relate to the costs incurred in respect of the company’s admission to 
aim in august 2014 2013 – nil 
 
 
6 loss from operations 
 
loss from operations is taken after taking account of the following items 
  
2014 
£’000
 
2013 
£’000
 
employee benefits see note 7 
 
1696 863 
depreciation of property plant and equipment 
 
35 34 
amortisation of intangible assets 
 
131 131 
operating lease expense 
 
8 31 
fees payable to the company’s auditors for the audit of the group annual accounts 

 
company annual accounts 

 
group annual accounts 
 
 
9 
25 
 
26 
 
fees payable to the company’s auditor and its associates for other services 

 
for tax services 

 
corporate finance advisory 
 
 
4 
60 
 
3 
5 
 
 
7 employee benefit expenses 
  
2014 
£’000
 
2013 
£’000
 
staff costs including directors comprise 
 
  
wages and salaries 
 
1551 754 
social security contributions and similar taxes 
 
145 109 
 
 
1696 863 
 
the charge related to share based pay in 2014 was £162000 2013  £60000 
 
 
key management personnel compensation 
key management personnel are those persons having authority and responsibility for planning directing and 
controlling the activities of the group which comprises only the directors of the company 
   
 
 
59 
  
2014 
£’000
 
2013 
£’000
 
salary and bonus 
 
297 206 
share based payments 
 
10  
 
 
307 206 
 
the remuneration of the highest paid director is shown in the report of the remuneration committee 
 
staff numbers 
the average monthly number of employees including directors and individuals employed by the group are as 
follows 
 
  
2014 
 
2013
 
sales 
 
8 5 
technical 
 
14 10 
management including directors 
 
4 1 
administration 
 
1 1 
 
 
27 17 
 
8 income tax expense 
  
2014 
£’000
 
2013 
£’000
 
current tax expensecredit 
 
  
current tax on loss for the year 
 
119 98 
total tax credit 
 
119 98 
 
the reasons for the difference between the actual tax charge for the year and the standard rate of corporate tax 
in the united kingdom applied to profits or the year are as follows 
 
  
2014 
£’000
 
2013 
£’000
 
loss for the year 
 
1533 460 
expected tax charge based on the standard rate of united kingdom corporation 
tax at the domestic rate of 215 2013 – 245 
 
 
330 
 
137 
expenses not deductible for tax purposes 
 
147 50 
depreciation for period in excess of capital allowances 
 
2 1 
unrelieved tax losses arising in the period 
 
28  
additional deduction for rd expenditure 
 
104 122 
surrender of tax losses for rd tax credit refund 
 
83 109 
other deductions arising in the period 
 
55  
total tax credit 
 
119 98   
 
 
60 
 
9 loss per share 
  
2014 
£’000
 
2013 
£’000
 
numerator 
 
  
loss for the year and loss used in basic eps 
 
1414 460 
loss used in diluted eps 
 
1414 460 
denominator 
 
  
weighted average number of shares used in basic eps 
 
18819772 16594700 
loss per share – basic and diluted 
 
8p 3p 
 
in accordance with ias 33 where there is a loss for the year there is no dilutive effect and therefore there is no 
difference between the basic and diluted loss per share 
 
a share for share swap took place on 14
th
 may 2014 at the rate of 100 new shares to every 1 old share one 
share in attraqt limited was exchanged for 100 shares in attraqt group plc the loss per share for the year 
to 31
st
 december 2013 has been restated to reflect the share for share swap 
 
 
10 property plant and equipment 
 
                                        2014
 
       2013
 
cost
 
plant  machinery 
£’000
 
fixtures  fittings 
£’000
 
total 
£’000
 
plant  machinery 
£’000
 
fixtures  fittings 
£’000
 
total 
£’000
 
balance at 1 january
 
174 2 176 117 1 118 
additions 15  15 57 1 58 
balance at 31 december 189 2 191 174 2 176 
accumulated depreciation and 
impairments 
balance at 1 january 
 
 
105 
 
 
1 
 
 
106 
 
 
71 
 
 
1 
 
 
72 
depreciation charge for the year 34 1 35 34  34 
balance at 31 december 139 2 141 105 1 106 
net book value 
at 31 december  
at 31 december prior year 
 
50 
69 
 
 
1 
 
50 
70 
 
69 
46 
 
1 
 
 
70 
46 
 
 
 
 
 
   
 
 
61 
 
11 intangible assets 
 
cost
 
 
2014 capitalised development costs 
£’000
 
2013 capitalised development costs 
£’000
 
balance at 1 january 
 
654 557 
additions 
 
131 97 
balance at 31 december 
 
785 654 
accumulated amortisation 
balance at 1 january 
 
 
534 
 
403 
amortisation charge for the year 
 
131 131 
balance at 31 december 
 
665 534 
net book value 
at 31 december 
at 31 december prior year  
 
 
120 
120 
 
120 
154 
 
 
 
12 investments in subsidiaries 
 
the principal subsidiaries of attraqt group plc all of which have been included in these consolidated financial 
statements are as follows  
 
 
name of subsidiary
  
shareholding
 
country of incorporation and principle place of business
 
attraqt limited 
 
100 uk 
attraqt inc held through attraqt limited 
 
100 usa 
 
investments in subsidiaries associates and joint ventures are held in the statement of financial position of the 
company at historic cost less any allowance for impairment 
 
 
13 trade and other receivables 
  
2014 
£’000
 
2013 
£’000
 
trade receivables 
 
253 179 
less allowance account for bad and doubtful debts 
 
3 14 
 
 
250 165 
prepayments and accrued income  
 
43 41 
corporation tax recoverable 
 
119  
other receivables 
 
17 127 
total trade and other receivables 
 
429 333   
 
 
62 
 
invoices are due on rendering of invoices for services provided the majority of customers settle debts within 
45 days of the date of the invoice 
 
as at 31 december 2014 trade receivables of £240000 2013 £194000 were past due of which £3000 were 
provided against they relate to the customers with no history of default payment of the overdue receivables is 
expected in due course the ageing analysis of these overdue receivables is as follows 
 
  
2014 
£’000
 
2013 
£’000
 
up to 3 months 
 
228 161 
3 to 6 months 
 
6 24 
6 to 12 months 
 
6 9 
over a year 
 
  
 
 
240 194 
 
as at 31 december 2014 trade receivables of £3000 2013  £14000 were considered bad or doubtful if fully 
impaired the amount of the debt would be written off from the allowance account 
 
movements on the allowance account for bad and doubtful debts 
  
2014 
£’000
 
2013 
£’000
 
at 1 january 2014 
 
14 23 
released during the year 
 
34 16 
provided during the year 
 
23 7 
at 31 december 2014 
 
3 14 
 
the movement on the provision for impaired receivables has been included in administrative expenses in the 
consolidated statement of comprehensive income  
 
other classes of financial assets included within trade and other receivables do not contain impaired assets 
 
 
14 trade and other payables 
  
2014 
£’000
 
2013 
£’000
 
trade payables 
 
214 109 
accrued expenses 
 
88 31 
deferred income 
 
99 75 
other payables – tax and social security payable 
 
139 136 
other payables 
 
 25 
total trade and other payables 
 
540 376 
   
 
 
63 
15 deferred tax 
 
no deferred tax assets have been recognised due to uncertainties over their ultimate recoverability 
 
 
16 share capital 
 
           allocated called up and fully paid
 
 
2014 
number 
2014 
£’000 
2013 
number 
2013 
£‘000 
ordinary shares of £001 each
 
    
at 1 january 17759600 177 17759600 177 
shares issued for cash during the year 2500000 25   
shares issued on conversion of loan 266394 3   
shares issued for noncash during the year 100000 1   
at 31 december 20625993 206 17759600 177 
 
on 14 may 2014 the company entered into a share for share swap with attraqt limited at a rate of 100 new 
shares for every 1 share in attraqt limited the comparative for 2013 has been restated to reflect this share 
for share swap 
 
the shares of the company were listed on the alternative investment market on 19 august 2014 on that date 
 
• 2500000 new shares were issued for cash at a price of 50 pence each 
• the provider of a loan of £45000 exercised his right to convert this into shares the company issued 266394 
shares in exchange for the loan in accordance with the terms of the loan agreement entered into in 
december 2009 
• 100000 shares were issued for noncash consideration in lieu of fees at the time of the ipo 
 
share based payments 
the company operates an emi share option scheme for employees the options are valid for 10 years from the 
date of grant after satisfaction of any performance condition included in the award the options will become 
exercisable on the earlier of any of the following events 
 
 the third anniversary of the date of grant 
 on the first anniversary following a listing of the company 
 on a change of control of the company as defined in the plan rules 
 on a sale or disposal of the company as defined in the plan rules or  
 following the exercise of discretion by the board 
 
the company uses a black scholes model to estimate the cost of share options 
 
the following information is relevant in the determination of the fair value of options granted during the year 
the assumptions inherent in the use of this model are as follows 
 
• the option life is the estimated average period over which the options will be exercised   
 
 
64 
• there are no vesting conditions remaining which apply to the share options other than that they vest at the 
earlier of 3 years’ continued service with the group or one year from flotation on aim 
• no variables change during the life of the option eg dividend yield remains zero 
• volatility has been calculated over the 3 year period prior to the grant date by reference to the daily share 
price of comparable listed companies 
 
the following options were granted during the year 
 
 
no fair value £ total fv £ vesting period 
29 may 2014 177590 0400 71036 3 years 
19 august 2014 177590 0478 84888 3 years 
 
details of the number of share options and the weighted average exercise price waep outstanding during the 
year are as follows 
 
 
                         2014 waep  2013 waep 
 
number
 
price pence number price pence
 
outstanding at the beginning of the year
 
986500 3159   
granted during the year 355180 3159 986500 3159 
exercised during the year     
expired during the year     
outstanding at the year end 1341680 3159 986500 3159 
exercisable at the year end     
 
during the year options outstanding over shares in attraqt limited were exchanged for options over shares 
in attraqt group plc on the basis of 100 new options for each old option held the comparative for 2013 
has been restated to reflect this share for share swap 
 
the options outstanding at the yearend are set out below 
 
 
                              2014
 
  2013 
date of grant
 
expiry date
 
exercise price p
 
share options
 
remaining life share options remaining life
 
24 july 2013
 
24 july 2023
 
315
 
986500 9 986500 10 
24 may 2014 24 may 2024 315 177590 10   
19 aug 2014 19 aug 2024 315 177590 10   
 
the total expense recognised during the year by the group for all schemes was £162000 2013 £60000 
the weighted average remaining life of the options outstanding at the end of the year was 88 years 2013 
96 years no options were exercised during the period   
 
 
65 
17 leases 
 
operating leases – lessee 
the total future value of minimum lease payments is due as follows 
  
2014 
£’000
 
2013 
£’000
 
not later than one year 
 
13 30 
later than one year and not later than five years 
 
19  
later than five years 
 
  
 
 
32 30 
 
 
18 related party transactions 
 
trading transactions 
during the year group companies entered into the following transactions with related parties who are not 
members of the group 
 
                                 sales of goods  purchase of goods 
 
2014 
£’000
 
2013 
£’000 
2014 
£’000 
2013 
£’000
 
venda limited to 1814 11 18 25 20 
powa technologies limited 105 91 136  
bright station ventures management limited   13 98 
 
 
amounts owed by related parties amounts owed to related parties 
 
2014 
£’000
 
2013 
£’000 
2014 
£’000 
2013 
£’000
 
venda limited to 1814   11 3 
powa technologies limited  10 16  
bright station ventures management limited   17 11 
 
none of the amounts above are secured against any assets of the group 
 
mr d m wagner is a director of powa technologies limited and bright station ventures management limited  
he was a director of venda limited until 1 august 2014 
 
all the amounts relating to transactions with venda are for the period to 1 august 2014 the balance shown 
at 31 december 2014 is the value of those transactions that had not been settled at that date 
 
sales of services to related parties were made at the groups usual list prices   
 
 
66 
 
all services provided to and received from related parties were processed on an arm’s length basis 
 
details of the directors’ emoluments together with other related information are set out in the report of the 
remuneration committee other related party transactions are as follows 
 
   transaction amount balance owed 
 
type of transaction 
 
2014 
£’000
 
2013 
£’000 
2014 
£’000 
2013 
£’000
 
mr d h weinberger
 
loan repayment
 
8   8 
bright station ventures ltd loan repayment 8   8 
 
in 2014 loans outstanding to both mr weinberger and brightstation ventures ltd were repaid 
 
the company has not made any provision for bad or doubtful debts in respect of related party debtors nor 
has any guarantee been given or received during 2014 regarding related party transactions 
 
 
19 events after the balance sheet date 
there are no material events to report after the balance sheet date 
 
the group has secured a £50000 overdraft facility with barclays bank 
 
 
20 capital commitments 
at 31
st
 december 2014 the group had no capital commitments 2013 £nil 
 
 
 
 
 
 
    
 
 
67 
report and financial statements for the  
period ended 31
st
 december 2014 
the company was incorporated on 20
th
 february 2014 
 
company statement of financial position for the period ended 31
st
 december 2014 
 
  
note
 
at 31 december 2014 
£’000
 
noncurrent assets 
investments 
 
 
3 
 
161 
current assets 
other receivables 
 
 
4 
 
1020 
total assets 
 
 1181 
current liabilities 
trade and other payables 
 
 
5 
 
68 
net assets 
 
 1113 
issued capital and reserves attributable to owners of the parent 
share capital 
 
 
6 
 
206 
share premium 
 
 1252 
share based payments reserve 
 
 222 
retained earnings 
 
 567 
total equity 
 
 1113 
 
 
david stirling 
director 
 
date 26
th
 february 2015 
 
 
 
 
 
 
   
 
 
68 
company statement of changes in equity for the period ended 31
st
 december 2014 
 
share 
capital 
share 
premium 
 
 
 
share based 
payment reserve 
retained 
earnings 
total 
equity 
 
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 
      
on incorporation      
loss for the year    567 567 
total comprehensive income for the year    567 567 
share based payment reserve   222  222 
issue of share capital 206 1252   1458 
31 december 2014 206 1252 222 567 1113 
 
the following describes the nature and purpose of each reserve within equity 
 
reserves    description and purpose 
share premium   amount subscribed for share capital in excess of nominal value 
 
share based payment reserve the share based payment reserve represents equity settled share based employee 
remuneration until such share options are exercised 
 
retained earnings all other net gains and losses and transactions with owners eg dividends not 
recognised elsewhere 
 
the accompanying accounting policies and notes form an integral part of these financial statements 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
   
 
 
69 
1 accounting policies 
the company has applied the group accounting policies consistently during the period 
 
basis of preparation 
the financial statements are for the period ended 31 december 2014  they have been prepared in compliance 
with international financial reporting standards ifrss and ifrs interpretations committee ifric 
interpretations as adopted by the european union as at 31 december 2014 and those parts of the companies 
act 2006 applicable to companies reporting under ifrs 
 
expense recognition 
expenditure is reported on an accruals basis operating expenses are recognised in the income statement upon 
utilisation of the service or at the date of their origin 
 
financial assets 
loans and receivables  
the company’s loans and receivables comprise trade and other receivables in the statement of financial 
position their carrying value approximates fair value at both reporting dates 
 
financial liabilities 
other financial liabilities 
other financial liabilities include the following items 
   
• trade payables and other shortterm monetary liabilities which are initially recognised at fair value and 
subsequently carried at amortised cost using the effective interest method 
 
 
2 company income statement 
as permitted by section 408 of the companies act 2006 the profit and loss account of the parent company is 
not presented as part of these financial statements the parent company’s result after taxation for the financial 
year was a loss of £567000  
 
 
3 investments 
  
at 31 december 2014 
£’000
 
at incorporation 
 
 
additions 
 
161 
investments 
 
161 
 
the principal subsidiaries of attraqt group plc are as follows 
 
name of subsidiary
  
shareholding
 
country of incorporation and principle place of business
 
attraqt limited 
 
100 uk 
attraqt inc held through attraqt limited 
 
100 usa 
   
 
 
70 
investments in subsidiaries associates and joint ventures are held as fixed assets and are held in the 
statement of financial position of the company at historic cost less any allowance for impairment 
 
 
4 other receivables 
  
2014 
£’000
 
amounts owed by group undertakings 
 
965 
prepayments 
 
23 
vat 
 
32 
total trade and other receivables 
 
1020 
 
the fair values of other receivables are not materially different to their carrying values 
 
 
5 trade and other payables 
  
2014 
£’000
 
trade payables 
 
67 
other payables 
 
1 
total trade and other payables 
 
68 
 
all financial liabilities held by the company at 31 december 2014 are classified as held at amortised cost 
 
 
6 share capital 
 
           issued and fully paid
 
 
2014 
number 
2014 
£’000 
ordinary shares of £001 each
 
  
on incorporation 1  
share swap 100 for 1 17759599 177 
other issues for cash during the year 2766394 28 
other issues for noncash during the year 100000 1 
at 31 december 20625994 206 
 
on 14 may 2014 the company entered into a share for share swap with attraqt limited at a rate of 100 new 
shares for every 1 share in attraqt limited as a result the number of shares increased by 17759599 or 
£177596 
   
 
 
71 
 
the shares of the company were listed on the alternative investment market on 19 august 2014  on that date 
 
• 2500000 new shares were issued for cash at a price of 50 pence each 
• 100000 shares were issued for noncash consideration in lieu of fees 
• the provider of a loan of £45000 exercised his right to convert this into shares  the company issued 226394 
shares in exchange for the loan in accordance with the terms of the loan agreement entered into in december 
2009 
 
share based payments 
for details of the share based payments please refer to the group note 16 
 
 
7 financial instruments 
categories of financial instrument
  
2014 
£’000
 
current 
other receivables
 
 
 
965
 
  965 
cash and cash equivalents – loans and receivables   
total loans and receivables  965 
trade and other payables   68 
  68 
 
8 cash balances 
attraqt group plc does not hold bank accounts in its name the company’s cash flow movements have been 
disclosed as part of the group financial statements on page 46  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
    
 
 
72 
company information  
 
country of incorporation 
united kingdom 
 
legal form 
public limited company 
 
directors 
dan wagner appointed 13
th
 may 2014 
andré brown appointed 20
th
 february 2014 
david stirling appointed 19
th
 august 2014 
ivor dunbar appointed 19
th
 august 2014 
edward ewing appointed 19
th
 august 2014 
robert fenner appointed 19
th
 august 2014 
 
secretary and registered office 
d a stirling 
heron tower 35
th
 floor 
110 bishopsgate 
london 
ec2n 4ay 
 
company number 
8904529 
 
auditors 
bdo llp 
55 baker street 
london w1u 7eu 
 
bankers 
barclays bank plc 
barclays business centre 
27 soho square 
london w1d 3qr 
 
lawyers 
taylor wessing llp 
5 new street square 
london ec4a 3tw 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
© 2015 attraqt group plc 
  
 


Summary:
  
 
 
21 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
ceo’s statement  
andré brown chief executive officer 26
th
 february 2015 
 
introduction 
we are very pleased with the strong 
operational and financial progress 
achieved by attraqt during 2014 
we have grown our customer base 
significantly adding important 
marquee names to our client roster 
further building the volume of 
recurring revenue  
 
the focus on our production 
processes earlier in the year has 
paid off with a significant increase in 
the number of new client sites being 
delivered in 2014 success in sales 
and production has contributed to 
the growth in revenue which we 
expect to see continue in 2015  
 
we have made some significant 
enhancements to the platform 
during the year and have an 
exciting development programme 
for 2015 in addition we are 
working on a number of important 
technology partnerships to extend 
the functionality of the platform 
and to expand the use of our 
technology into new market 
segments 
 
business model 
the company’s business model is 
based on a recurring monthly 
service fee plus a oneoff setup 
fee and additional followon 
project fees clients sign up for a 
minimum of 12 months but some 
larger clients sign up for a longer 
period of 23 years  
 
  
the current sales model is based on 
direct sales via a dedicated sales team 
due to the importance of the 
functionality provided by the platform 
to our clients client loyalty is strong 
and churn is typically less than 5 of 
revenue per annum with most clients 
automatically renewing at the end of 
the contractual term this rate 
remains the same throughout the 
year on an annualised basis 
 
growth strategy 
the company’s current objective is to 
become the merchandising platform 
of choice for online retailers in 
western europe and the us with the 
longerterm aim of taking on more 
global capacity 
    
 
 
22 
attraqt’s business plan is simple 
and scalable founded on 5 key 
elements 1 focus on sales and 
marketing to grow client base and 
volume of recurring revenue 2 
expand the company’s productive 
capacity to keep pace with 
accelerating sales 3 develop 
strategic partnerships – both sales 
and technology – to accelerate sales 
growth and extend our product 
offering 4 extend the capabilities of 
the platform through continued 
investment in platform development 
adding new features and creating 
new products to create new revenue 
streams and 5 identify new markets 
and new ways to repurpose our 
technology 
 
review of sales  operations 
the company has continued to grow 
the clientbase in the year adding 36 
new clients in the uk and the us 
2013 31 worth £089m on an 
annualised basis these included 
important marquee names such as 
ben sherman cotton traders 
heals jd williams kate spade 
screwfix warehouse wilkinson 
and white stuff – bringing the total 
number of clients by the end of 
december 2014 to 87 2013 60 
 
the average value of new client 
contracts signed in 2014 has 
increased by 45 to £24700 
reflecting the clear return on 
investment we can demonstrate for 
our products the growing maturity of 
the sales team and process and the 
increasing size of our typical customer 
 
production also performed well in 
2014 with the company delivering 35 
new client sites during the year 
bringing the total live sites to 110 by 
year end the company also started 
24 new site builds at the end of 2014 
which are scheduled to be delivered in 
2015  
it is also pleasing to see existing 
clients trusting the company to do 
follow on project work such as 
rwd responsive web design 
projects and search autocomplete 
projects during 2014  
 
the company’s investment in 
excellent client service continues 
to pay dividends through low 
customer churn rates we have 
achieved renewals from major 
clients including bt directories 
and nectar both having  been 
clients since 2005 as well as laura 
ashley paperchase and tesco 
clothing 
 
interesting client 
implementations during the year 
included the following 
 
ellis brigham decided to leverage 
the ‘checkout page’ by tempting 
customers to add extra items to 
their basket just before they pay 
during christmas trading ellis 
brigham used the tools within 
freestyle merchandising to make 
sure the first two products in the 
‘recommendation zone’ were £10 
and £20 gift vouchers this was a 
huge success as customers were 
triggered to buy gift vouchers 
where they normally would not 
have thought to do so 
 
life style sports recently went live 
with an ipad ambassador’ program 
where instore sales staff were 
supplied ipad tablets loaded with 
attraqt’s freestyle 
merchandising solution these 
devices are then deployed as an 
alternative browsing and checkout 
channel the functionality 
replicates the main website which 
instore allows for a wider range of 
products to be considered 
alleviates stock issues enables  
  
greater interaction with the customer 
and ultimately offers a more 
streamlined check out process 
customer feedback was very positive – 
they particularly liked the integration 
and ease of purchase and delivery 
 
us expansion  
attraqt has continued to focus on 
its us expansion plans following the 
establishment of a sales office in new 
york at the end of 2013 during 2014 
we have successfully added 6 new us 
clients cufflinkscom ghurka kate 
spade revolve clothing st 
bernards sports inc and 1800 
wheelchairs the company recently 
hired a senior sales person together 
with a telemarketer as part of its plans 
to continue the expansion of the us 
operation  
 
platform enhances and product 
development 
platform enhancements and 
product developments increase the 
competitive strength of the 
platform with developments being 
largely driven by customer demand 
and trends in the market in 
particular 2014 saw the continuing 
development of the platform with 
eight upgrades being deployed 
during the year  
 
these releases included additional 
functionality such as improved 
currency and language support and 
options to synchronise product 
collections between sites other 
enhancements included increasing 
the performance and functionality of 
the platform integrating “ab testing” 
to allow retailers to split site traffic to 
test different merchandising 
strategies enhanced search 
capabilities and increased reporting 
functionality   
 
 
23 
market developments 
online retail is a very competitive and 
high profile industry that is constantly 
evolving as retailers find new ways to 
drive conversion rates and increase 
customer loyalty  
 
a new and developing market trend 
has been the move by retailers away 
from the automated ‘blackbox’ 
method of providing product 
recommendations the black box 
method works by blindly processing 
data through an algorithm which 
neither provides an explanation for its 
recommendations nor allows the 
retailer to make adjustments to the 
recommendations  
 
the market trend is towards a more 
nuanced approach that allows the 
retailer interaction with the 
recommendations being made and 
in particular to extend their 
merchandising strategies into those 
recommendations – a move which 
plays to the core strength of the 
platform  
 
one of the other big developments 
we have seen in the market is the 
move to multichannel with retailers 
such as tesco clothing adopting in
store tablets and kiosks and to 
internationalisation with clients 
such as superdry rolling out 20 
international sites  
 
the big challenge for both multi
channel and internationalisation is 
how to ensure consistency of 
merchandising across channels and 
countries – something at which the 
board believes attraqt particularly 
excels through its platform we will 
continue to monitor market trends 
and enhance the platform to ensure 
it meets customers’ needs  
  
 
financial review 
total revenue was marginally 
ahead of expectations having risen 
by 32 to £209m 2013 £158m 
as new customers were added and 
existing customers launched 
additional sites the recurring 
monthly revenue which represents 
90 of total group revenue also 
rose by 30 from £148m to 
£192m and the exit rate year
end annualised billing for 2014 
was up 42 at £236m  
   
the group recorded losses before 
tax and at the ebitda level both at 
levels in line with management 
expectations losses before tax 
increased to £153m 2013 
£056m predominantly as a result 
of the aim flotation expenses the 
higher ongoing costs associated 
with the company’s public listing 
and investing to grow the business 
ebitda losses rose to £074m 
2013 £039m driven by the 
investment in the us sales 
operation and in expanding the 
productive capacity of the 
company attraqt continues to 
invest in technical enhancements 
to the existing product offerings 
and in new products some of this 
cost is capitalised but some is 
absorbed as part of the operating 
costs of the business  
 
admission to aim 
as a ukbased technology 
company aim feels like the natural 
home for attraqt the company 
spent the first half of 2014 
preparing for its admission to the 
aim market which was successfully 
completed on 19
th
 august 2014 
 
we are proud of attraqt’s 
progress to date having achieved a 
great deal over the last 12 years 
since our founding in 2003 we now 
have a strong portfolio of clients and 
believe that by joining aim we will 
have an increased profile with future 
customers and better access to funds 
allowing us to further develop the 
company both domestically and 
internationally  
 
the capital raised on ipo £125m 
before expenses by way of a share 
subscription is being used to fund 
expansion of the us sales team 
increase the productive capacity of the 
business and increase the 
functionality of the core platform 
 
outlook 
we are very pleased with the strong 
progress we have made in 2014 the 
management team is delivering to 
plan and we are gaining traction with 
leading retailers both in the uk and 
us securing an increasing number of 
larger customers as retailers look for a 
means to grow their online revenues 
and interact with their customers in a 
more personalised manner 
 
• there is real momentum in the 
sales process and we see this 
continuing into 2015  
 
• the platform is performing well 
having coped with a significant 
increase in platform usage in 2014 
compared to 2013 without 
affecting performance 
 
• our production processes are 
becoming more efficient enabling 
the company to support the 
increasing volume of new clients 
being signed 
 
• the us sales operation continues 
to show good progress having 
signed six new clients from a 
standing start  
   
 
 
24 
 
  
• we have maintained our high 
margin and low revenue churn 
with a strong pipeline of new 
business opportunities for 2015 
and an increasingly sophisticated 
merchandising platform we are 
confident in the ongoing success of 
attraqt and in the outlook for 
2015 and beyond 
 
 
 
with a strong pipeline 
of new business 
opportunities for 2015 
and a sophisticated 
merchandising 
platform we are 
confident in the 
ongoing success of 
attraqt and in the 
outlook for 2015 and 
beyond 
andré brown 
chief executive officer