The company posted sales up by £1.7m to £71.4m in the year to 31 October 2019, while EBITDA jumped by 52% to £5.4m.
Operating profit was £1.48m compared to the prior year’s £3.36m loss, representing a big turnaround in the firm’s performance under CEO Rachael Nevins, who took over in October 2018.
Adjusted operating profit prior to exceptionals increased from £256k to £2.33m, while the bottom line profit was almost £1.3m, compared to a £3.6m loss the prior year.
Adare SEC said the results were enabled by the company optimising its business operations in addition to “an even greater focus on client-centricity to support new, renewed or extended contracts”.
At the beginning of the year the firm highlighted its strong showing in a customer service benchmark study.
Commenting on the results, Nevins praised the firm’s employees for their “absolute commitment” to providing the highest standards of service excellence, which she said “truly sets Adare SEC apart, as does our company’s longstanding heritage and experience”.
“It was important that we started our new financial year with the strong foundations these results provide. Now more than ever, they give our business the resilience and our clients the assurance that we can continue to support them with their critical communications throughout the challenging circumstances of Covid-19. We are totally committed to doing this whilst ensuring the continued health and safety of our colleagues.”
Adare SEC operates three secure sites at Huddersfield, Redditch and Nottingham, which continue to operate in line with government guidance on safe working practices during the pandemic.
“All our sites are operating to good effect and we are extremely grateful to our colleagues who are working hard to deliver a great service for our clients,” Nevins told Printweek.
“I am pleased to say that we remain busy and are continuing to provide key services across all our traditional print and digital product range.
Nevins added that Adare SEC provides key supplies to the NHS and to UK government bodies and is also responsible for supporting many clients with mandatory, regulatory customer communications.
The business has used the government’s Job Retention Scheme to furlough a small number of workers thus far.
“Like many businesses in our industry, we are experiencing some impact in demand due to Covid-19. We have taken the precautionary step to protect jobs and ensure the longevity of our business by participating in the government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and have furloughed less than ten per cent of our 400 colleagues,” Nevins added.
“We will also consider any further appropriate and applicable government support initiatives to ensure we remain a stable employer which is agile and ready for the recovery when it happens.”
Last year Adare SEC produced and sent around 750m critical customer communications, in both physical and digital formats. The firm said that client demand for secure digital storage of documents was increasing due to GDPR and other regulations, with customers tapping into Adare’s know-how to outsource this type of service.
Adare SEC was spun off as part of a two-way split of the former Adare Group business in the summer of 2017, with print management wing Adare International operating as a separate entity.
Both Adare SEC and Adare International are owned by private equity house Endless.
