musicMagpie PLC on Wednesday said its annual loss narrowed on lower costs, though the company warned its new financial year has got off to a difficult start due to UK postal strikes.

Shares in musicMagpie were down 11% to 33.40 pence each in London on Wednesday morning.

The Stockport, England-based used-technology reseller said its pretax loss in the year that ended November 30 was £1.5 million, narrowing markedly from £14.8 million a year earlier.

Revenue edged down 0.2% to £145.3 million from £145.6 million.

However, total operating expenses declined by a third to £38.7 million from £57.9 million.

‘In common with many consumer-facing businesses, this has been a tough year for musicMagpie in the face of a rapidly changing macroeconomic environment. However, against this backdrop I am delighted with the performance of our core Consumer Technology business, which grew by over 12% and now accounts for nearly 70% of our total revenue,’ said Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer Steve Oliver.

‘We achieved a huge amount in the year, from completing the roll-out of our SMARTDrop kiosks with Asda, significantly growing our consumer rental subscriber base, to adding our products to both Back Market and Walmart and launching our consumer tech rental service for corporates.

‘While the short-term outlook continues to be challenging, we believe our ability to help consumers raise cash and save money positions us well for resilient trading. In the longer term, we remain very confident in musicMagpie’s future prospects - and especially those of our rental business.’

The company said it has had to ‘navigate through the challenges of the well-publicised postal strikes’ at the start of its new financial year. It also noted ‘the tough consumer environment and continuing macroeconomic uncertainty’.

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