Ackroo releases business outlook & strategic plan for 2016

OTTAWA, Dec. 9, 2015 /CNW/ - Ackroo Inc. (TSXV: AKR), (OTC: AKRFF), a gift card, loyalty and rewards technology and services provider, announces its business outlook and strategic objectives for 2016.

"The Company is very pleased with the success of 2015 and how well the Company is positioned for the coming year" said Steve Levely, Chief Executive Officer at Ackroo.  "The Company put great focus on growth and on getting the business to break even in 2015.  We further developed our product, made large improvements in our operational model, further strengthened current partnerships, added more channel partnerships for the business plus we began our inorganic growth plans via the acquisition of 2 organizations.  The Company has come a very long way over the last 12 months and is excited to have achieved many of the goals set out a year ago.  The Company has delivered substantial year over year revenue and customer growth in 2015 and is now only a quarter or two away from profitability, putting the Company at a very exciting inflection point.  We look forward to leveraging our successes to close out the year strong and to continue to meet our goal of becoming North America's largest and best provider of gift card and loyalty processing solutions."

Some of the highlights of the Company's 2016 plan are as follows:

Financial Outlook:

• The Company plans to deliver positive EPS and a profitable 2016 by accomplishing several key financial goals:
  • Annual revenues: The Company's goal is to increase revenues year over year by at least 50% via a combination of organic and inorganic growth.
  • Operating costs: The Company will maintain current 2015 operating costs with no more than a 10% increase to support organic growth.
  • Gross Margin %: Expected to remain at current levels.
  • % of recurring revenue vs. total revenue: Expected to remain at current levels.
  • Capital Allocation: Company will use additional capital to fund accretive acquisitions, and to take advantage of significant consolidation opportunities in the segment.
  • Net Margin/EBITDA: Net Margin on revenue over break is projected to be greater than 40%.

Operational Outlook:

• Maintain and further develop the current sales operations model with a focus on Canadian merchants and partnerships but also begin pursuing focus in the United States as well.
• Continue to further develop current strategic partnerships and continue to add others in order to increase the Company's addressable market and also to further enhance the Company's channel go to market strategy.
• Continue to increase monthly recurring revenues (MRR) per location by delivering enhanced services and products to current and newly acquired customers.
• Increase the total number of customer locations supported by at least 75%.
• Complete product migration of legacy and newly acquired technology platforms in order to maximize focus, support and margins.
• Continue operational migration of recently acquired and potentially newly acquired operational teams and processes.
• Continue to maintain the Company's current single digit customer attrition rate by continuing to evolve technology and support.

Product and Services Development:

• Continue to enhance the market leading Ackroo3 platform with specific focus on enhancing the merchant and cardholder experience.
• For the merchant experience the Company plans to further develop its integration at point of sale.  The Company will enhance features and options for current point of sale partnerships and will also add more point of sale integrated options via new partnerships.
• The Company will further develop the Ackroo program console in 2016 to enhance reporting, self-serve functions, reward schemes, marketing campaigns functions and to further enhance the customer and transaction analytics engine.
• The Company will rebuild its e-gift card and photoGIFTCARD solutions providing a key online and distribution enhancement to the existing offering.
• For consumers, Ackroo will look to develop a white labelled web application for merchants to allow them to offer a web and mobile interface for gift card and loyalty processing for their customers, and will enhance existing customer web portals to allow merchants to customize actionable data collected.
• The Company will also begin to focus on providing more marketing services to customers to assist them with utilizing the Company's technology to drive increased return on investment.

Business Development:

• Further penetrate the over 250,000 merchant locations represented by the Company's referral partners and the over 1,000,000 locations represented by the Company's product partners.
• Continue to increase the number of selected referral partners and build solid go to market strategies with each to drive significant organic growth
• Pursue and complete the acquisition or merger of additional complimentary or competitive businesses.
• Ackroo will further leverage its existing technology interface (API) to both allow point of sale solutions like management and debit/credit systems to integrate with Ackroo's platform or for Ackroo to integrate to their platforms.  In turn this will increase the Company's addressable market, channel partnerships and revenues.

"We believe we have the right team, focus and plan to execute on our goals and deliver the Company's most successful year yet" said Steve Levely. "We are committed to achieving great success for our customers, employees and shareholders and we look forward to a very prosperous 2016 ahead."   

Ackroo also announces that the Company will be transitioning its finance department from Ottawa, Canada to the Hamilton area to be more local with the CEO and as a result of this change Dan Liu has resigned from her role as Chief Financial Officer.  The Company will hire Dan's replacement in early 2016.  The Company would like to thank Dan for her commitment and contribution to the Company and wish her the very best in her future endeavors.

These forecasts and forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and activities and are subject to risks and uncertainties. The company has based these forward-looking statements on assumptions and assessments made by its management in light of their experience and their perception of historical trends, current conditions, expected future developments and other factors they believe to be appropriate. Important factors that could cause actual results, developments and business decisions to differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to: the company's ability to raise enough capital to support the company's go forward plans; the overall global economic environment; the impact of competition and new technologies; general market, political and economic conditions in the countries in which the company operates; projected capital expenditures and liquidity; changes in the company's strategy; government regulations and approvals; changes in customers' budgeting priorities; plus other factors that may arise. Any forward-looking statements in this press release are made as of the date hereof, and the company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

About Ackroo

Ackroo is a SaaS based solution provider supplying gift card and loyalty solutions into the $160 billion North American gift card and loyalty market. Their solutions enable businesses, merchants and business networks to increase profitability and build long-term customer relationships through customized gift card and loyalty programs. Ackroo's web-based solutions provide the power of a massively scalable software platform in a lightweight online tool that works with existing point-of-sale equipment, making it easy and affordable for businesses to launch gift card & loyalty programs that deliver immediate return on investment. Ackroo is headquartered in Ottawa, Canada. For more information, visit: www.ackroo.com.

The TSX Venture Exchange has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE Ackroo Inc.

Steve Levely, Chief Executive Officer, Ackroo, Tel: [phone] x730, Email: [email protected]