It can only go up from here I hope.
Darren Shaw has stepped down
Steven Goodman, who joined the Board in 2005 as an Executive Director and Group Legal Counsel, has been appointed Chairman.
Move to AIM
The capital reorganisation is expected to create a more appropriate capital
structure for the Company and save costs of approximately 200,000 per annum.
The Board has therefore decided that the focus of the Company's TV home shopping
business will move away from activities involving high media costs and high
overheads, and in particular away from producing and airing its own TV home
shopping and DRTV programmes. Instead, it will focus on what the Board considers
to be lower-risk activities within the TV home shopping and DRTV sector in
Greater China.
Accordingly, the Board has decided to focus much of the Group's attention and
resources on seeking to grow its international sourcing business. This is a
business which sources products, principally from China, for TV and DRTV home
shopping operators in Europe, the USA and North Asia. This business takes
advantage of the Company's proximity to the Pearl River Delta and the many
product manufacturers located in the Southern China region, plus the Group's
experience in sourcing home shopping products. In many cases, the business
produces its own infomercials to support the sales of those products, although
the Company is seeing a growing trend for the costs of infomercials to be shared
with its home shopping operator partners. The Company intends to build on the
good relationships which it has already established with a number of major
international home shopping operators. I am pleased to say that this business is
currently performing in line with the Board's expectations and is showing
encouraging signs for the future.
As part of the review, the Board has also identified the opportunity for the
Company to expand its operations by selling its products into the retail sector
in China and Taiwan.
The Board has reviewed the prospects for the FreeStyle catalogue business, which
was acquired for a relatively low cost in January 2006. The Board's view is that
such business would require significant investment to achieve sufficient
critical mass to meet the Board's objectives. However, the Board was not
convinced that the prospects for achieving the required level of success were
sufficiently certain to justify such an investment. Accordingly, it will be
discontinuing that business.
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