Creative agency M&C Saatchi has seen its operating profit grow by a staggering 40%, up to £17.1 million from £12.2 million year-on-year despite a troubled last 18 months beset with senior departures.
In further positive news, the group has also returned to organic growth over the first half of 2024, seeing its revenues rise by a healthy 4% to £211.5m compared with the same period last year.
Marking the first set of results to be announced under new chief executive Zaid Al-Qassab, actual revenues (which include disbanded subsidiaries and disregard currency rates) fell by 1%, with total billings dropping from £250.448m to £243.982m year-on-year.
The agency registered particularly strong regional performances in the UK, Europe and the Middle East, posting like-for-like revenue growth of 12.6%, 16.7% and 47.6% respectively.
“We continue to make great progress in building a strong platform to deliver sustainable organic growth through our self-help initiatives and wider transformation,” Al-Qassab said in a statement.
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“Our increasingly diversified revenue provides greater resilience against macro volatility, and our higher-margin businesses continue to be our highest growth contributors. While there is always more to do, we are excited about the further potential we can unleash.
He continued: “Looking forward, despite continued volatility within our markets, we are confident that we are on track to deliver against market expectations for the full year 2024, whilst noting the tougher second-half comparators.
“We will continue to deliver on our cost-saving programme whilst also making strategic investments in the second half of the year to underpin our ambition of long-term sustainable growth and delivering strong returns for shareholders.”
Promisingly for the firm, advertising – which accounts for 38% of its like-for-like net revenue was up by 6% to £45.2m. One of the key issues faced by Al-Qassab however is to prove to investors that M&C Saatchi is not overly reliant on advertising – which now accounts for around 4% less like-for-like net revenue year-on-year, indicating a positive trend for the fledgling CEO.
