YouGov slips into the red as clients rein in spending
POLLING and research firm YouGov dipped into the red last year and said it expects trading to remain challenging as its clients continue to rein in expenditure in the downturn.
YouGov posted a pre-tax loss of £0.7m for the year to the end of July, compared with a pre-tax profit of £4m last year. Turnover fell three per cent at constant exchange rates.
‘Chief executive Nadhim Zahawi said the firm had geared up for growth in the financial sector that failed to materialise following the economic crisis.
‘“Before the credit crunch we were anticipating higher revenue from the investment community clients, but that didn’t come through,” he said, adding that the firm had stripped out £2.5m of costs in reaction to the lower-than-expected revenue growth.
Zahawi refused to predict when significant research spending by firms would resume, saying its clients continue to tread “very, very cautiously”.