NI e-learning firm reports sales up 28% to £13.77m over last year

lreland e-learning company Learning Pool has said sales have grown by 28% to £13.77m over the last year.

And pre-tax profits at Learning Pool for the year ended April 2019 were £2.78m, up 39% from £2.15m the year before.

The company, which has around 200 staff across six offices in the UK and US, said it had also gained around 100 new clients in sectors ranging from sports to retail and beauty.

New customers included the

Football Association, DFS, Avon, the Institute of Swimming and law firm Baker McKenzie.

Learning Pool products are used by companies for processes such as staff training.

During the year the company had also completed acquisitions in online learning, taking over Glasgow company MediaCorp during the summer of 2018.

That acquisition had brought Learning Pool into the apprenticeship training market,

In June this year, it acquired Oxfordshire company HT2 Labs, and previously took over Mind Click in Nottingham. And durNORTHERN ing the year ending April 2019, the company had also secured its two biggest contracts during its history. The latest results have not yet been published at Companies House.

CEO Paul McElvaney, who founded the company in 2006, said: “Thanks to the Learning Pool team and our fantastic customers we had a stand-out year.

“Coming off the back of exceptional growth in the prior 12 months, we set and achieved demanding objectives ... We’ve maintained this growth trajectory in financial year 2020 with high levels of new client wins and successfully bringing HT2 Labs into the group.

“This transformative deal accelerates both our technology roadmap and international expansion.”

Speaking in June when the deal was announced, he said: “We’ve been admirers of HT2 Labs’ products for a long time and are excited to be working even more closely with a team who share our passion for innovation, creating positive business impact and driving customer service.”

Chief financial officer Daire McCaughley said most of the growth over the year had come from new business wins.

Learning Pool is backed by Carlyle Cardinal Ireland, an investment fund sponsored by The Carlyle Group and Cardinal Capital Group. The backing was first announced in 2016, when CCI and Learning Pool said the move was “driven by the fund’s global contacts and strategic experience in growing similar-sized companies”.

“The investment from CCI will help Learning Pool continue to build out the team and develop new, innovative products,” they added.