System1 posts disappointing half-year results

The company’s revenue declined by 10% to £13.8m, compared with £15.3m in the same period the previous year.

Gross profit was £11.4m, compared with £12.5m in the same period in 2016/2017. Pre-tax profit was 70% down.

The company rebranded from BrainJuicer to System1 at the beginning of the financial year.

In a statement, System1 cited deferred or cut market research budgets from FMCG clients as one factor explaining the results, as well as clients moving research spend towards automated lower cost research data.

Commenting on the results, John Kearon, chief executive of System1 (pictured), said "life as System1 Group has not started as hoped”, but that the decline in revenue has acted as a “catalyst” in re-engineering the company’s portfolio of products.

He said: “We are in a period of change, and with our normal limited revenue visibility we are more cautious than usual on our short-term outlook. The encouraging signs referred to previously continue, but trading in Q3 to date has not yet resulted in a pick-up in our order book. Were the gross profit decline seen in H1 to be repeated in H2, then our profit before tax for the full year would decline by 50% to 60% ( 2016/17: £6.3m).”