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(Alliance News) - Mission Group PLC on Wednesday reported a recovery in the second half of its 2020 financial year despite a fall in revenue and said Chief Financial Officer Peter Fitzwilliam will step down.
The London-based advertising agency's 2020 revenue decreased 24% to GBP61.5 million from GBP81.0 million in 2019. Client retention remained "strong", it said, with well over 50% of revenue generated from clients of five years or more.
Mission Group reported a swing to a reported pretax loss of GBP2.1 million in 2020 from a GBP8.3 million profit in 2019. However, it also swung to a headline profit of GBP1.2 million from a GBP10.2 million loss, matching its expectations of over GBP1 million and comfortably ahead of market expectations.
The company said this was a result of an "exceptionally challenging" second quarter that was hurt by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, however it did see a "sequential recovery" as the year progressed.
"To achieve headline profitability whilst at the same time reducing debt was quite an achievement and the group's ability to take swift, proactive, astute and at times difficult decisions, all whilst maintaining a seamless service to our clients, is impressive. I therefore offer my sincere thanks to the people working across Mission. Their continued dedication and hard work throughout such a time means that Mission is now emerging as an even stronger business than before, better positioned to make progress against its long-term plans and strategy," said Chair David Morgan.
Looking ahead, Mission Group said trading in the first quarter of 2021 is on track with its expectations. It is focusing on leveraging infrastructure by adding "high margin, high engagement capabilities in data, analytics, and performance media", underpinning a 14% margin target by 2022, it added.
Additionally, Mission Group said CFO Williams will step down to pursue non-executive opportunities. Commercial Director Giles Lee will take over the role this month. Barry Cook also will step down from his charitable and non-executive roles after holding a board position for almost two years.
Shares in Mission Group were down 3.7% at 84.25 pence in London on Wednesday.
By Zoe Wickens; zoewickens@alliancenews.com
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