Annual revenue up 8% to £62.6m at YouGov

The company saw double-digit growth in its data products and services, while revenue from its brand tracker BrandIndex increased 22% to £5m. Omnibus revenue was up 20% to £7.6m.

US revenue was up 8% to £20.8m, however adjusted operating profit fell 15% to £2.3m. “This was due to slower growth in the US custom research business in the second half of the year as two major clients unexpectedly reduced their activity,” the company said. “Following management actions, including cost savings, implemented since the year-end, we expect the US custom business and overall US profitability to be back on course in the current year.”

UK revenue and adjusted operating profit were both up, 11% to £17.4m and 19% to £4.4m respectively, while Middle East sales grew by 22% to £7.3m and French revenue doubled to £0.3m

After a difficult first half of the year, YouGov said its Nordic business had undergone a restructuring programme, achieving annualised savings of £0.5m. Revenue was down 4% to £8.5m, but YouGov said the actions taken “should enable the unit to deliver a better performance in the next financial year”.

In Germany, too, where the company has experienced past challenges, the firm said performance improved, with adjusted operating profit up 36% to £0.9m. Revenue was flat at £9.4m.

Commenting on the year ahead, CEO Stephan Shakespeare (pictured) said: “Our focus will remain on maintaining the growth from our expanding suite of data products and services and on focusing resources in all our existing operations to exploit further the advantages of our core operating model.

“Encouragingly, our clients are demanding a more data centric focus to their market research. Consistent with this, we plan to continue extending our panels to new markets and thus to offer our data and insights to ever greater numbers of clients.”