SpaceandPeople wins five-year German deal

A COMPANY which markets promotional space in shopping centres and airports yesterday revealed it had won a major contract in Germany.

Under the five-year agreement, SpaceandPeople's Retail Profile Europe arm will work with German-based ECE Projektmanagement to manage kiosks across its shopping centres in the country.

It is expected that by the end of 2012 there will be approximately 200 of the kiosks, which are known as retail merchandising units and are used for product tastings and giveaways, in operation.

The contract is the first signed in Germany by Retail Profile since it was bought by Glasgow-based SpaceandPeople earlier this year in a 6.3 million deal.

Retail Profile already works with some 500 companies which trade from kiosks in more than 30 UK shopping centres. It has also established an operation in Russia where it now has in excess of 200 units in 13 centres.

In September, SpaceandPeople hailed an "exceptionally strong first quarter" as it revealed a boost in extended half year turnover.

Gross revenues increased 25 per cent to 10.5m - with the bulk of sales in the UK - while operating profits were up 31 per cent to 286,576 for the eight months to the end of June. But the firm made a pre-tax loss of 57,209 due to the one-off costs relating to the Retail Profile acquisition. Shares in SpaceandPeople closed up 1.5p at 53p.