Futuremedia, the Brighton-based online learning company, has reported provisional first quarter revenues of £5 million, an increase of 1,756 per cent on last year.

The huge jump in sales is down to a surge in uptake of the company's Learning For All (LFA) programme which has been adopted by Royal Mail.

But the Nile Street company still made a net loss of £759,000 for the three months to July 31, compared to a £103,000 profit for the previous quarter.

This was a result of increased spending on marketing, administration and systems maintenance ahead of the launch of phase three of LFA.

And uptake of the LFA programme tends to be concentrated in the second half of the fiscal year mainly because of the summer holiday season, the company said.

The LFA scheme is run in conjunction with the Government's Home Computing Initiative (HCI) which gives firms tax breaks so they can offer workers home computers at discounted prices.

LFA provides workers with a computer, internet access, learning programmes for family and personal use and access to various business programmes.

Futuremedia has a multi-million-pound contract with Royal Mail to deliver internet access to its 200,000 workforce, including home installation where required.

Mats Johansson, chief executive of Futuremedia, said he was pleased with the overall performance for the quarter, especially with the significant increase in revenues.

He said: "The HCI is clearly an idea whose time has come.

"We believe the combination of our leadership position in HCI implementation and broad selection of off-the-shelf and bespoke e-learning content has created a very compelling growth opportunity for Futuremedia in the coming quarters and years.

"During our first fiscal quarter, we have made a significant investment in expanding our sales and marketing capabilities to respond to the intense interest in LFA.

"Our sales and marketing strategy has resulted in substantial orders in the first quarter, with a very strong pipeline of new and potential customers."

Royal Mail chief executive Adam Crozier said the HCI scheme was the "most popular thing we have done for our people in the past 20 years".

Futuremedia has joined forces with Microsoft to encourage more organisations to involve staff in HCI.

Because the LFA programme uses Microsoft Office, the two companies have decided on a joint marketing strategy.