Peppermint Technology this morning issued a statement on its financial performance for the year ending 30th June 2014 – and very bullish it is too, with the company showing over 200% growth on last year and over £10 million in forward contracted revenue. In the last 12 months Peppermint has added a number of new customers taking the total client base to over 20 firms and more than 3000 users. New customers include Taylor & Emmet, Mayo Wynne Baxter, DezRezLegal, Gosschalks, Gepp & Sons, Hine Legal, Thor Lion, B P Collins and Ashton KCJ. (Blake Morgan is mid-implementation.)
Peppermint has also announced it will be adding a new product line for smaller firms under the brand of PeppDirect. This will provide law firms, with little or no IT staff, with an “out-of-the-box” version of the Peppermint Platform complete with templates, workflows and dashboards. PeppDirect launches later this month and is already gaining momentum with three firms signed up pre general release.
Peppermint founder and CEO Arlene Adams says, “Peppermint has the right product, in the right market, at the right time. Legal firms are facing multiple challenges from new entrants, margin pressure, legislative reforms and a shift in customer buying patterns. There is a growing realisation that customer and data centric technology, based on a Microsoft standard platform, is the cornerstone to addressing these challenges. Legal firms are in the content business and need to think, behave and operate more like a digital business from the front office to the back office. We help them do this.”
COMMENT: Peppermint’s 2013/14 accounts (the full figures cannot be released until they have been audited) are in sharp contrast to the previous year’s accounts to June 2013, which revealed a £1.3 million loss although as Arlene Adams points out, that trading period included a huge investment in resources and headcount – the company now has over 40 staff. “Peppermint’s financial position is reflective of an early stage, fast growing software company,” adds Adams. “We aren’t building a small niche legal software company… we are on the road to build a big software house so we can’t be compared to the Old School legal IT vendors. Times have changed and this market needs big investment – and that will drive a good return for customers, employees and investors alike.”
See attached accounts Peppermint 2013 Accounts