ME Group, formerly Photo-Me, runs more than 49,000 coin-and-card machines in 16 countries, mainly photobooths and laundry machines placed in supermarkets, malls and transport hubs. Laundry now earns 54% of Group EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation), but the older photobooth business is shrinking in some markets. A weak April 2026 in France pushed full-year profit guidance to £69m-£74m, against a record £78.2m in 2025, and the shares closed at 112.8p on 9 October 2026, against a June 2025 month-end of 229.5p.
Booths and washing machines in busy places
ME Group installs and runs automated machines in high-footfall sites and pays the site owner a commission or fixed fee. Photo.ME makes photobooths, including ones for biometric ID photos. Wash.ME runs unattended laundry machines and launderettes. Print.ME runs digital printing kiosks, and smaller lines include children's rides and a new dog-wash machine.
Operations split into Continental Europe, the UK & Republic of Ireland and Asia Pacific. France is the largest and most profitable market. The company renewed contracts there with SNCF (7 years) and RATP (5 years), worth over £9m of revenue. Its shares have been listed in London since 1962. It changed its name from Photo-Me International in August 2022 to reflect diversification. 13 Jul 2026 22 Feb 2024 23 Mar 2026
Laundry takes over as the growth engine
Profit before tax rose from £67m in FY2023 to £73m in FY2024 and £78m in FY2025, each a record. Laundry drove it. The company installed 1,326 machines in 2025, a record, and the estate reached 7,607 machines. Laundry revenue rose 17% to £112m in 2025.
Management added partners and pruned. In October 2023 it bought Fujifilm's Japanese photobooth business, 3,548 units, for £5.3m. In May 2024 it sold SEMPA SAS for €4.6m to focus on photobooths and laundry. It signed UK supermarket and forecourt deals with Motor Fuel Group (up to 300 machines, July 2024) and Morrisons (at least 200, January 2025). The shares rose from 140p in October 2023 to 229.5p in June 2025. 2 Oct 2023 22 May 2024 29 Jul 2024 20 Jan 2025 22 Feb 2024 24 Feb 2025 23 Mar 2026
Photobooth drag, a failed sale process and late accounts
Photobooths weakened. A printer supplier fault hit H1 2025. Regulatory changes in Germany, and later lower photo ID demand there, cut revenue. Photobooth revenue fell 4% to £166m in 2025. The net laundry installation target of 1,200 for 2025 was set in February 2025; the company delivered 1,145 net (1,326 gross).
Investor Montefiore sold 7% at 200p in February 2025. In June 2025 the company confirmed it was weighing strategic options after share price movement and media speculation. In December 2025 it ended talks, saying it had not received an offer in all shareholders' interests. Montefiore sold its last 3.3% at 132p in January 2026. The company then delayed its audited 2025 results twice after the auditor asked for more time, publishing on 23 March 2026. It launched an £18m buyback that day. 24 Feb 2025 22 Jul 2025 28 Feb 2025 18 Jun 2025 5 Dec 2025 14 Jan 2026 25 Feb 2026 12 Mar 2026 23 Mar 2026 23 Mar 2026
April 2026: a French slowdown
Trading ran in line with expectations for five months of 2026. In April, vending revenue slowed. Photobooth revenue fell 17% and laundry growth dropped to 3%. The Board blamed weaker consumer confidence in France and geopolitical uncertainty tied to the Middle East conflict, and called it temporary. On 1 June the company set FY2026 profit guidance at £69m-£74m, below earlier expectations. The shares fell from 147p at end-May to 100.4p at end-June.
H1 2026 revenue was flat at £154.3m. EBITDA rose 7% to £57.0m, but profit before tax fell 4% to £32.7m. The interim dividend was cut 6.5% to 3.60p. 1 Jun 2026 13 Jul 2026
Laundry delivered, photobooths and cash are the pressure points
Diversifying into laundry worked: Wash.ME's share of Group EBITDA went from 23% in 2019 to 54%. The company met its 2025 profit range of £76m-£80m. But it missed the net laundry install target for 2025 by a small margin. Photobooths, once called stable, proved exposed to regulation in Germany, supplier faults and travel and consumer sentiment.
Cash tightened. Net cash fell from £26.5m at October 2025 to £7.5m at April 2026, after £34m of capital spending, dividends and buybacks. The company also chose to sell fewer machines outright, which lowered equipment revenue by 14%. 22 Jul 2025 23 Mar 2026 13 Jul 2026
A family-led team, with new faces
Serge Crasnianski is CEO and Deputy Chairman; Sir John Lewis is non-executive Chairman. Vladimir Crasneanscki joined the Board in June 2025 and became Deputy CEO in February 2026. He built the UK laundry deals with MFG, Morrisons, ASDA and Shell. Christophe Dantcikian became Chief Operating Officer in March 2026. Tania Crasnianski left her executive role in March 2026 and stays as a non-executive director. Two non-executives left in late 2024, and Lord Barker joined in 2025.
Management's record on profit targets was good through 2025, with guidance met. It then missed on 2026 trading and delayed its annual accounts. In April 2026 CFO Stéphane Gibon exercised options and sold the 211,029 shares at £1.47. 13 Jul 2026 3 Jun 2025 2 Feb 2026 2 Mar 2026 28 Apr 2026 13 Apr 2026 6 Nov 2024 3 Dec 2024
Laundry up, photobooths still soft
Laundry now accounts for 38% of Group vending revenue. H1 laundry vending revenue rose 16% to £54.8m, while Photo.ME vending revenue fell 6% to £77.6m. The company installed 499 net laundry machines in H1. It signed ASDA, its largest partnership, and an Aldi Austria pilot of 25 laundry machines and 25 photobooths.
Trading recovered after April: total vending revenue in May was 11.1% higher than a year earlier, with laundry up 25.9% and photobooths up 1.8%. The buyback had bought 3.6m shares for £4.5m by the report date. 13 Jul 2026 9 Apr 2026
1,300 machines, no return to old photobooth levels
Guidance for FY2026 is profit before tax of £69m-£74m, with the Board mindful that geopolitics may soften trading. The company aims for about 1,300 laundry installations in FY2026, with about 800 in H2. It has a longer-term ambition of up to 700 machines at ASDA, and of 20,000+ machines globally, first stated in April 2026. It plans to roll out Kee.ME key-cutting machines in France and to pursue acquisitions closely related to its core business. It keeps a policy of paying more than 55% of after-tax profit in dividends and plans to finish the £18m buyback by 31 December 2026.
Management is cautious on photobooths.
The Board said: 'Photobooth demand has partially recovered, but it is not expected to return to previous levels while travel uncertainty persists.' 13 Jul 2026 1 Jun 2026 9 Apr 2026 23 Mar 2026 23 Mar 2026
“Photobooth demand has partially recovered, but it is not expected to return to previous levels while travel uncertainty persists.” 13 Jul 2026
Written by AI from Me Group International's own announcements since Oct 2023 · every paragraph links to its sources