Sheffield and Leeds-base data science agency, Jaywing, says its group revenue has dropped by 14.9% to £9.5m, which it largely attributes to a weak first half performance in UK Risk Consultancy.
Publishing its interim results for the six months ended 30 September 2024 (H1), the business also reports a pre-tax loss of £2.4m (2023: £1.4m pre-tax loss).
David Beck, executive chairman, said: “Following the Board and management changes at the beginning of the financial year we have continued to restructure the UK business to bring its cost base in line with its underlying revenues.
“We have recently exited the lease on our Sheffield office, which has been a significant factor in helping us deliver total annualised cost savings in the UK business of over £1m over the past year.
“The UK market for our services remains challenging and we have reorganised and simplified the structure of our UK operations into two main operating units and tightened the focus of their respective market propositions and revenue generation capacity.
“We have invested in our growing Australian business with the opening of a new office in Melbourne and an increase in staff to service a burgeoning client roster. We have also been successful in winning new business in other APAC territories beyond Australia.”
Jaywing adds that new business wins in H1 across all divisions are expected to deliver a stronger second half performance, despite business confidence in the UK remaining fragile.
The firm says while it is confident in the potential of the UK Risk Consulting sector going forward, the first half year was “extremely challenging and delivered a disappointing revenue performance”, despite good wins with Northern Trains and Trustly.
Jaywing notes several key customer contracts in this sector came to an end and new business was slower to come on stream than it had anticipated.
