TNS 2001 Results
March 20 2002
Taylor Nelson Sofres (TNS) has just announced strong preliminary results for the year ended 31 December 2001. The company's effective worldwide strategy and performance has ensured better than expected financial results.
Overall results have indicated that the MR industry has resisted much of the recent economic uncertainty, with drivers for growth being independent of many widespread pressures. TNS has experienced growth in all of its geographic regions and within all of its specialist research sectors. It has also noted a particular trend in that its higher margin syndicated services have continued to increase.
During 2001, the group continued to make acquisitions to complete its global network and strengthen its specialist sectors. Taking into account these new businesses, the group's total reported turnover increased by 21.6 percent to £582.7 million (2000 £479.3 million). Consequently, TNS's underlying growth was 6.1 percent, ahead of estimated market growth of 5 percent.
However, in the aftermath of September's terrorist atrocities, press and broadcast monitoring activities were adversely affected by the dominance of a single news story and Omnibus and focus group services saw reduced demand. While these are both short-term factors, they did affect some of the group's higher margin operations, holding back the full profit potential for 2001.
Other highlights from the results include:
- Healthcare has proved to be sector which performed strongly overall, with increased demand arising from the newly-consolidated pharmaceutical companies.
- TNS successfully acquired the MDC Group with interests in Finland, Russia and the Baltic States. It also gained the CR Group with its presence in Mexicom Adscope and TES in the US, and SiS in the UK.
- Research in China has been greatly enhanced with the acquisition of a 46 percent shareholding in CTR. TNS now runs a national TV measurement panel and can offer advertising expenditure monitoring to 500 TV stations.
- TNS's growth in turnover from syndicated services has been significant, with these operations now accounting for 49 percent of the total, compared with 45 percent in 2000. Expansion of the group's consumer panels, and the establishment of new syndicated services in sectors such as Healthcare have also enhanced profitability.
- The group has experienced an increase in the importance of branded solutions continuing to invest in this area during 2001. It acquired two new products - the Conversion Model and Buy(c)Test, and developed MarketWhys in-house.
- Internet capabilities were strengthened in terms of data collection and delivery continues, particularly in the US. TNSInfo, the group's web portal delivery system, has now been incorporated into the consumer panel operations.
Chief Executive, Mike Kirkham, commented 'Against a difficult economic environment, we estimate that the market information industry grew by 5 percent in 2001, demonstrating its relative resilience. Once again, the successful implementation of our strategy enabled us to out-perform the market. With a strong management team in place, we continue to seek out acquisitions that reinforce our sector strength and to develop new services to meet clients' evolving needs. Investment into the development of new services and technologies, which will maintain our position at the forefront of the industry, will remain a priority. At the same time, we will focus on steady margin improvement. Having entered the year with the order book ahead of last year, we are confident that we can continue our steady growth in 2002.'
All articles 2006-22 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.
