Interim Management Statement

RNS Number : 7902N

Creston PLC

31 July 2014

 



31 July 2014

Creston plc

Interim Management Statement

Creston plc ('Creston' or the 'Group') (LSE: CRE), the international marketing communications group, today announces its interim management statement for the period 1 April 2014 to date.

In the three months to 30 June 2014 ('the Period'), there was an increase of 3 per cent in Group revenue compared to the prior year period, and like-for-like¹ revenue grew by 2 per cent. This has been driven primarily by the impact of prior year client wins and the growth of our international work for existing clients.

Our new business performance in the first quarter of this financial year has been good with activity in line with the same prior year period and has added a breadth of new clients and digital assignments to the Group. Major wins during the Period include Activision, to handle its pan-European social media content; the growth of our events programme for Bentley from UK to pan-Europe; a new HIV prevention client at CDC; an internal referral win from Danone; McCain, to handle the digital work across all of its UK brands; the Right to Buy digital contract through the Crown Commercial Service; Sony Mobile, to manage global email production; and our first global digital win for a Unilever brand.

Both our recent acquisitions, healthcare PR agency Liberation and neuroscience specialist, Walnut Group, whilst not material, are performing well. Liberation was named Small Consultancy of the Year at the recent Communiqué awards for the Healthcare industry, while Walnut Group has further strengthened our Insight offering which is being increasingly leveraged across the Group as a point of differentiation to create new client opportunities.

The Group is on track with its previously announced plans to reposition Creston as an agency group under the unifying Unlimited brand in the second half of FY15; and effective from 1 July 2014 Kathryn Herrick joined the Board and Group as Chief Financial Officer.  

While it is still early in the financial year, the Board confirms that current trading is in line with its expectations for the full year.

-ends-

For further information please contact:

Creston plc	[phone]
Barrie Brien, Group Chief Executive
Kathryn Herrick, Chief Financial Officer
Bell Pottinger	[phone]
Elly Williamson / Malika Shermatova

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¹ Like-for-like excludes the results from any acquisitions made during the current year, it compares current year performance to the prior year, adjusting the current year to only include the results of prior year acquisitions for the commensurate period of ownership.

About Creston plc

Creston plc (LSE: CRE) is an international marketing communications group that leverages the strength of its agencies' collective expertise and knowledge across insight, technology and creativity to drive transformational growth for its clients through thinking and ideas that connect brands to customers. The Group delivers a range of marketing services, including advertising, CRM, digital and direct marketing, health communications, local marketing, market research, PR and social media marketing to a broad spectrum of blue-chip global clients. www.creston.com

 

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