2010 'not a good year' for Adventis

27th May 2011 15:47

A goodwill impairment charge on Adventis's Health and Property business meant that the firm fell into the red in 2010.Even chairman Nick Winks honestly admitted, "2010 was not a good year."The marketing and advertising firm said that turnover was broadly unchanged at £28.65m (£28.33m in 2009), while gross profit fell only slightly to £10.16m, from £10.81m.However, a poor performance in Healthcare provided a drag on numbers. "2010 was a challenging year for the Health division, with sector consolidation resulting in aggressive discounting as procurement seeks to further rationalise agency rostas. This has resulted in the loss of an account to a global network and the scope of some accounts narrowing to specific activities," the group said.The property business experience challenging conditions due to a significant decrease in projects from the UK commercial property sector.Pre-tax loss was £5.78m, significantly down from a loss of £0.86m previously, after an impairment of goodwill of £5.38m. Loss per share was 12p, down from a profit of 1.9p.However, the chairman as said that Adventis is now in a turnaround period, in which every aspect of the business "is subject to re-examination and repair. Those business operations that are unviable will be sold if possible or closed if a buyer cannot be found," Winks said."2011 will be a difficult year and success is not guaranteed. We have however made a good start in tackling the main issues and I hope to be able to report good progress this time next year," he said.---BC