Calgary, AB – Blackline Safety Corp. (TSX Venture: BLN) (“Blackline” or “Company”), a leading manufacturer of employee safety monitoring solutions today announced its results for its 2015 fiscal year ended October 31, 2015.
“Blackline’s almost two-fold increase in sales is the combined result of our continuous investment into product development coupled with our expansion into a growing variety of regions, industries and applications,” said Cody Slater, CEO and Chairman of Blackline. “Customers are increasingly recognizing the power of our solutions to improve their emergency response while reducing operational costs. We see this heightened awareness increasing customer adoption and driving Blackline’s continued growth into the future.”
Quarter Ended Oct 31 |
Twelve Month Period Ended Oct 31 |
|||||
2015 |
2014 |
Change |
2015 |
2014 |
Change |
|
Revenue |
$2,253 |
$2,048 |
10% |
$7,268 |
$4,182 |
74% |
Gross Margin |
$1,112 |
$772 |
44% |
$3,405 |
$1,803 |
89% |
Gross Margin percentage |
49% |
38% |
29% |
47% |
43% |
9% |
Adjusted EBITDA |
($38) |
($287) |
87% |
($641) |
($1,739) |
63% |
Net Loss |
($1,172) |
($1,069) |
10% |
($4,152) |
($4,544) |
9% |
Loss per Share |
($0.05) |
($0.05) |
- |
($0.18) |
($0.23) |
22% |
(Values in thousands except for percentages and per share data)
Annual revenue for fiscal 2015 increased 74% over the prior year and Q4 revenue increased 31% over Q3 and 10% over the fourth quarter of the prior year. In all cases the increased revenue was driven from the Company’s focus on industrial safety, specifically the Loner Bridge System that began selling in the fall of 2014. The Company also began selling its Loner Complete leasing program that substitutes the up-front, recognized product revenue with lease revenue recognized over the lease term.
Gross margin progressed alongside revenue to a record of $1.1M for the final quarter and $3.4M for the year. This was the primary contributor to the improved adjusted EBITDA and reduced net loss. The improvement came from increased revenue that absorbed more of the Company’s fixed production costs and the Company reduced some of its third-party costs to provide monitoring services.
Adjusted EBITDA improved to ($641k) compared to ($1.7M) from the prior year on increased gross margin and expenses that increased at a much lower rate than gross margin. Net loss improved $392k over the prior year—less than the improvement in Adjusted EBITDA as the Company reinvested much of the improved gross margin back into the development of new products.
The Company reduced the cash used in operating activities from ($3.7M) in 2014 down to ($1.0M) in 2015. The largest factor behind the improvement was increasing collections of amounts due from product sales and billings of future services. The majority of customers purchase the Company’s product with advance services, instead of monthly payments, which increases the amount of cash the Company collects through the initial sale.
Blackline’s audited consolidated financial statements and management’s discussion and analysis for the year ended October 31, 2015 are available at www.sedar.com. All results are reported in Canadian dollars. To learn more about Blackline Safety, visit www.blacklinesafety.com and follow Blackline on Twitter @blacklinesafety.
About Blackline: Blackline Safety Corp. (TSX VENTURE:BLN) is a wireless location leader that develops, manufactures, and markets products and services for lone worker safety monitoring. Targeting every industry, employee role and location, our Loner® solutions are promoted through offices in Calgary and the United Kingdom and sold through a growing network of international distributors. Loner products alert monitoring personnel of a safety incident, locate the employee and empower the most efficient emergency response—Alert. Locate. Respond.™ Our vision is to become the leading supplier of wirelessly connected lone worker safety monitoring products in the world. For more information, visit www.BlacklineSafety.com.
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
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Cody Slater, CEO
cslater@blacklinegps.com
Blackline Safety Corp.
Unit 101, 1215 13 Street SE
Calgary, AB Canada T2G 3J4
Telephone: +1-403-451-0327
Fax: +1-403-451-9981
www.blacklinesafety.com