Illuminas shines as Media Sq. posts loss
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Illuminas delivered a standout performance for the year ending 28 February, with organic profit growth of more than 300%, parent company Media Square said today.
The MR agency had “responded excellently to the internal promotion of a new management team” led by CEO John Connaughton, who took over following the departure last year of long-time leadership duo David Smith and Andy Dexter.
According to Media Square's preliminary results, Illuminas's operations – both in the UK and the US – “made a positive contribution to the group's profits”.
However that good work was undone by problems elsewhere, particularly the UK marketing services part of the business – leaving the group as a whole nursing a £3.2m loss for the year.
Though Media Square's sales were up 63% to £205.6m and revenue increased 41% to £103m, it was announced today that chief executive Jeremy Middleton was out of a job, replaced by Roger Parry, who takes up the role of executive chairman on 2 July.
Parry – the non-executive chairman of online pollster YouGov – will conduct a review of the business over the next few months to pin down the areas best placed to deliver long-term growth opportunities, and where future investment should be focussed.
Interim non-executive chairman Nigel Bacon said Media Square had taken on an “immense integration and reorganisation task” following the late-2005 acquisition of PR group Huntsworth's Marketing Services Group – a collection of 16 companies, including Illuminas (or as it was then known, Incepta Marketing Intelligence).
Bacon said that integration was now “substantially complete” and that many of the companies were “showing strong signs of sustainable organic growth”.
He added: “The last 12 months have been challenging following a period when the size of our business more than tripled. Whilst the overall profitability of the business was below original market expectations, this should not detract from the considerable achievements made in the year.”
Author: Brian Tarran
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