M&C Saatchi emerged from a pandemic year recording strong revenue growth in the first five months of 2021, ahead of expectations.
CEO Moray MacLennan: “Profit in all five of the new divisions has grown in 2021 through meeting new client demands in the new digital landscape.
“This initial success and our continued focus on innovation, technology and data, combined with creativity, which is at our core, gives us confidence for the remainder of the year and beyond.”
Net revenue, headline profit before tax and headline earnings are projected to end the year ahead of market consensus.
Half year headline profit before tax is expected to be more than £10 million.
The global advertising group also released full year results for 2020. Headline profit before taxation was £8.3 million. Net revenue was £225.4 million, down from £256.4 million in 2019.
The company says the result was ahead of expectations, reflecting strong client retention and new business performance.
New appointments and assignments from clients included Tik Tok, Lexus, the UK government and Tinder.
In Australia, like-for-like net revenue fell by 6% to £47.4 million from £50.6 million. Headline operating profit fell by 41% to £3.1 million from £5.2 million.
The result was helped by costing cutting, with headline operating costs in Australia reduced by 12%.
The company noted staff redundancies in the UK, US, Australia and Singapore as part of restructuring.
The number of M&C Saatchi’s operating units have been cut by 34%. Twenty have been sold, closed or merged. Advertising and CRM agencies have been combined into a single offering.
"2020 was undoubtedly a watershed year for the company,” says MacLennan.
“We went into the year confronted by COVID-19 and ended with a new strategy and the unswerving support of the group's employees and a new structure in place for 2021.
“The resilience of the company and our people was reflected in the outstanding client retention across 2020.
“Our agility allowed us to quickly adapt to the new market conditions (including an even greater focus on digital) and enabled the swift implementation of our new strategy.”
2020 results:
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