Impressive Revenue Rise for Ipsos
February 24 2022
Ipsos has reported a 16.8% increase in annual revenue to EUR 2.14bn for 2021, with overall organic growth of 17.9%. Perhaps more significantly, the figures represent impressive organic growth of 10.4% when compared with 2019.
Performance by Region
Ipsos saw double digit organic growth in 2021 in all major regions compared to 2020, with a 'particularly strong' recovery in the Americas. At the same time, EMEA reported the highest overall growth compared to 2019, which Ipsos says reflects not just the resumption of spend by brands and advertisers, but also European governments investing in research related to Covid itself.
Performance by Region
| In millions of euros | 2021 revenue
| Contribution
| Organic growth
2021 / 2020 | Organic growth
2021 / 2019 |
| EMEA | 1,014.5 | 47% | 17% | 19.5% |
| Americas | 773.1 | 36% | 20% | 6% |
Asia Pacific | 359.2 | 17% | 14.5% | -2% |
| Total | 2,146.7 | 100% | 17.9% | 10.4% |
|
Performance by Audience
During the year, Ipsos reported 25% growth from its technology and CPG clients, who were investing in innovations and new launches for consumers as economies unlocked. The firm's work for brands focusing on their clients and employees recovered (up 14% compared to 2020 but still down all of 9% vs 2019). Work among patients and doctors has continued to thrive throughout the pandemic and this year was up 18%; while work for the public sector and governments boomed in 2020 and continued to grow in 2021.
Performance by Audience
| In millions of euros | 2021
revenue | Contribution
| Organic growth
2021 / 2020 | Organic growth
2021 / 2019 |
| Consumers | 945.8 | 44% | 25% | 9% |
| Clients and employees | 452.2 | 21% | 14% | -9% |
Citizens | 376.4 | 18% | 6% | 36.5% |
| Doctors and patients | 372.3 | 17% | 18% | 23.5% |
| Annual Revenue | 2,146.7 | 100% | 17.9% | 10.4% |
|
Company Performance
Overall, the group says its profitability in 2021 was significantly higher than the previous year, with operating margin of 12.9% compared to a margin of 10.3% in 2020 and 9.9% in 2019. Ipsos puts this down to high margin work monitoring the pandemic for certain Western governments, which contributed around 2% of additional revenue. Another factor was the transition to online surveys, providing a higher growth margin rate and better payroll to gross margin ratio; as well as the permanence of certain savings resulting from the group's 'Call to Action' plan, implemented in 2020 in response to the pandemic, which involved making EUR 113m in savings.
Gross margin increased to 64.7% compared to 64.2% a year earlier. Ipsos says it used a mix of data collection modes, as some face-to-face survey fields (with lower gross margin rates), which were discontinued during the first lockdown and again in 2021, were replaced in many cases by online surveys with higher gross margins. In total, during 2021, online surveys accounted for 62% of survey activity, compared to 60% in 2020 and 55% in 2019.
For 2021 net profit attributable to owners of Ipsos' parent, stands at EUR 183.9m, compared to EUR 109.5m in 2020, and adjusted net profit rose 61.4% to EUR 209.2m compared to EUR 129.6m in 2020. In a statement, the firm said: 'We enter the year with a lower level of gearing, and more cash in the bank than at any point in the last decade, allowing us to continue to invest both in faster digital solutions and undertake much larger acquisitions than in the last few years, particularly in the analytics and advisory areas to respond to growing client demand. We are confident of continued growth in 2022, albeit at a lower rate than in 2021'.
Web site:
www.ipsos.com .
All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.
