Media Square announces profits surge and restructure

Marketing communications group Media Square has announced a huge jump in profits for the past 12 months.

The group, which owns design consultancies Lloyd Northover, Holmes & Marchant, Arken and Four Ninety, announced a headline operating profit increase of 44 per cent (£2.3m) for the 12 months to February 2009.

Media Square’s design division saw revenues drop from £20.8m to £20.5m, but headline operating profits grow from £1m to £1.7m over the 12 months.

In a statement, the group says, ‘Marketing and design would have produced much stronger results had it not been for the reduction in spending by automotive and retail clients in the final quarter.

‘In the design division […] an improved mix of clients meant that operating profits improved, despite slightly lower revenue.’

Executive chairman Roger Parry says the rise in profits is due to a strategy which saw ‘non-core and underperforming business units […] closed, sold or merged with others’.

He adds, ‘We have also made redundancies driven by efficiency and cost savings.’

This approach has seen design consultancy Symmetry merged with Four Ninety, and  Media Square shut down all its operations in Germany and South Africa within the past year.

The group has also announced plans to remove its divisional structure, with David Worthington, former chairman of the design division, becoming chairman of Lloyd Northover Group.

Group finance director Graeme Burns is to leave the group at the end of December, with chief operating officer Bruce Wingfield set to take over many of his responsibilities.

Start the discussionStart the discussion
  • Post a comment

Latest articles