According to the annual survey carried out by Willott Kingston Smith on marketing services companies the top 50 companies made aggregate losses of £558m. However, after removing amounts from earlier acquisitions (£611m at Saatchi and £22m at Aegis Group, for example) the underlying trading performance of the sector showed a modest improvement. 67% of the companies made a pre-tax profit.
Despite the recession, clients spent more money and companies managed to improve output per head by 8.1%. Borrowings also fell by 14%. However, this was mainly achieved by staff savings. Clients managed to squeeze margins and take extended credit from their agencies: the gross profits on turnover fell from 18.2% to 17.6%.
The survey is based on the latest accounts filed at Companies House.
Copies of the survey “The Financial Performance of Marketing Services Companies” are availabe priced £120
Willott Kingston Smith 071 580 4646
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