Mission Group Reports Record Revenue Growth for 2023

The MISSION Group (AIM: TMG), creator of Work That Counts, comprising a group of digital marketing and communications Agencies delivering real, sustainable growth for its Clients, has today reported record revenue growth for 2023.

Robust trading by the Group’s Agencies despite challenging market conditions resulted in revenue growth on continuing operations 9% (+2% like-for-like) higher than in 2022. This performance has been driven by strong and enduring Client retention by the Agencies, a reflection of the significant focus teams place on excellent Client service. An impressive 53% of revenue currently comes from Clients who have been with the Group for over five years.

The Group was also pleased to announce a number of high-profile strategic wins in 2023, including Lumen, EasyJet, Beauty Pie, Pandora, Meta, Hawaiian Tropic and Brabantia.

A decline in Group Headline Profit Before Tax to £4.2m (2002: £7.9m) reflects the challenges presented by the collapse of the US tech market in the first quarter of 2023. This resulted in a sudden reduction and deferral of Client spending that proved difficult to quickly mitigate at a point when the Group was fully resourced in that sector following a record 2022.

Nevertheless, over the course of the year MISSION has continued to make good progress on its strategic areas of focus, enhancing its market-leading service offering and suite of capabilities for clients. This has included selective investments in Data Science & Digital Analytics through the acquisition of Mezzo Labs, and Growth Media through the launch of Turbine, an integrated Growth Media agency specialising in earned, owned and paid media for consumer brands. Together with the Group’s recent acquisitions of Populate and Influence, these investments continue to contribute new, profitable, revenue streams for the Group as well as underpinning work for existing Clients.

Further important highlights for the year have included the development of the Group’s AI strategy with a focus on three key pillars: ensuring AI literacy in every role to empower and enable everyone with AI learning; providing specialist centralised AI support and resources to work alongside our Agencies; and defining guidelines to inform AI usage across the Group and ensure compliance and best practice.

The Group also launched its MISSION Hubs Programme in 2023, an agency ecosystem with MISSION at its heart, connected to a series of Affiliates and Partners from around the globe. The programme provides the Group with extended access to new markets and revenue streams through trusted relationships. At the same time, Affiliates and Partners gain access to our 19 Agencies in 25 locations worldwide and the MISSION Advantage portfolio of strategic services including media, data & analytics, AI and production.  

In light of the trading challenges across the wider industry, in the second half of the year the Group implemented a series of initiatives to help drive efficiencies across the business. Careful management of the Group’s cost base has contributed to an annualised projection of £5.0m in profit improvements for 2024. Executing on our value restoration plan, the sale of the Group’s 80% shareholding in its non-core investment Pathfindr and the completion of a successful refinancing of the Group’s existing debt facility with our long-standing lender NatWest, ensures MISSION has a strong platform from which Group profitability will improve in 2024.

James Clifton, MISSION’s chief executive, commented, “The company and the industry as a whole experienced a range of well-documented challenges in 2023, but it is important not to lose sight of the significant strategic progress that was achieved over the course of the year. I would like to thank the entire team at MISSION for their incredible work and commitment.

Trading in the current financial year has started well and is in line with expectations. We are particularly pleased to have secured a number of early new business wins.

The opening of our new central London office has also created a busy hub for the Group. The perfect home for continued collaboration and learning, it is really encouraging to see how it benefits our teams’ growth and development, on a day-to-day basis.

In summary, the plan for the year ahead is simple. We remain focused on leveraging the continued success of MISSION’s integrated Group offering to expand our capabilities and market leading services for our Clients.”