The new chief executive at North East e-commerce company Visualsoft has hailed rising revenues in a “challenging” year.
The digital agency, which has offices in Newcastle, London, Stockton, Dubai and Manchester, has published accounts for the year ended June 30 2022 showing turnover increased from £19.1m to £20.9m. Operating profit, however, dropped from £2.6m to £1.5m and profit for the year more than halved - from £2.8m to £1.2m.
Staff numbers increased from 291 to 340 employees in the year, which also saw the opening of its central London base. Exceptional administrative expenses of £868,000 were recorded, relating to the recruitment of senior and executive management as well as short-term consultancy fees and legal and professional fees relating to Livingbridge making an investment into the company in 2021.
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In an accompanying report, the firm said 2022 was a challenging year as it wrestled with double-digit inflation and declining consumer spending. Despite the headwinds, Visualsoft Ltd managed to grow revenue by 9% and net assets by 12%. During the financial year Visualsoft hired key senior executives including new CEO Lenny Nash, who joined in January 2022, and CTO Pete Craghill, who joined in September 2021.
CEO Mr Nash outlined how the 2022 financial year was a challenging year with lingering complications from Covid, the war in Ukraine, rapidly-rising inflation and declining consumer confidence. He said: “UK online retail sales – which have a direct impact on our revenue – declined 4.7% during our fiscal year. Despite the economic factors we were able to grow our revenue by more than 9%, far outpacing the industry. We will carry this momentum into 2023 and beyond with an unwavering focus on creating the best customer experience for our merchants.”
Following the publication of the accounts a Visualsoft spokesman said: “Our 2022 accounts reflect an exciting year of investment and growth for Visualsoft. We focused the funding from our growth partner Livingbridge largely on growing our technical capabilities by adding many new development roles, including a new CTO and VP of Product who are driving continuous improvements to our platform.
“We are also strengthening our team across the business and while we are proud to employ such a large number of skilled developers and marketers in the North East we are excited to be expanding across the UK more broadly, having recently opened an office in central London.”
He added: “Our focus remains unchanged, to help our retailers sell more online, and we recognise the important role we have to play in supporting them through challenging economic times.
”At Visualsoft we are grateful for our very diverse client base which puts us in a strong position even in times of broader economic challenge. This is reflected in the top-line growth we achieved in 2022. Our CEO Lenny Nash joined in early 2022, bringing with him many years of experience in the technology sector having spent his career in Silicon Valley. Lenny has reorganised our senior leadership team to focus on providing a world-class customer experience and platform.”
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