Jaywing PLC on Thursday said that cost actions helped mitigate the impact of revenue slowdown, though it still swung to a loss in the first half.

Jaywing is a Sheffield-based data-driven advertising and marketing agency. Shares in the firm were up 9.9% at 3.96 pence each in London on Thursday afternoon.

For the six months ended September 30, pretax loss was £1.4 million, swung from profit of £208,000 a year prior. Basic and diluted loss per share was 1.81 pence, widened from 0.22p.

Revenue was £11.1 million, down 0.5% from £11.2 million the previous year.

Looking forward, Jaywing said a reduction in its cost base, coupled with the strong growth of its Australia business and of its Risk Consulting business in the UK, helped to offset the impact of the weaker UK Agency sector in the first half.

‘In the first quarter of this financial year we could see the risk of a slowdown in UK revenues, and we took early action to reduce our cost base to ensure that we were in the right shape for the balance of the year. With the support of our employees we were able to remove around 14% of UK headcount, resulting in a significant improvement in UK profitability in the second quarter of this financial year (July 23 to September 23). Following this exercise, group headcount is 245 across the UK and Australia,’ said Chief Executive Officer Andrew Fryatt.

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