Close Period update

The Mission Marketing Group plc 

Close Period update

2 March 2010

The Mission Marketing Group plc ('themission®`, AIM: TMMG), the national marketing communications and advertising group, today issued the following close period update for the year ended 31 December 2009 ahead of its preliminary results announcement in April 2010.

As reported previously, the media sector experienced extremely difficult trading conditions during the first half of the year and this continued into the second half. Against this background themission nevertheless anticipated that incomes in the second half would hold up in line with the first six months and this has been achieved. Group agencies have maintained a strong new business performance with some signs of the beginnings of recovery, as previously indicated, in the Property and Financial Services sectors. Recent wins include Redrow, Canon, Avanade, M&S Money, Skills Development Scotland, Legal & General Investments, Oasis Dental, Virgin Media, Manchester Airports Group, Blockbuster, Holland and Barrett and Sensodyne.

Margins remained under pressure, due to ongoing client cost constraints and the need to hire additional staff as a result of increased activity in some client segments during the final quarter. As a result, profitability improved to a lesser degree than anticipated at the time of the Interim Results in September and operating profit for the full year will be somewhat below previous expectations. Our lower structural cost base meant that margins were maintained at the upper end of sector norms, at 15%.

Overall, trading for the current year is in line with expectations. However, taking into account the effects of the market downturn and the ongoing uncertainty in the broader UK economy, the Board continues to adopt a conservative outlook for the year. Further steps are being taken to structure the Group and to strengthen the balance sheet for 2010 and beyond and our annual impairment review is expected to trim the carrying value of goodwill by up to 10%.

Iain Ferguson, Chief Executive Officer, commented:

"In light of the continuing difficult trading environment, we believe that the Group's performance, the effective work delivered for our clients, the strength in new business and the momentum in our agencies are all encouraging. We are continuing to take initiatives to ensure the Group is well placed to benefit from a cyclical recovery."

www.themission.co.uk 

themission® is a national marketing communications and advertising group with 11 offices across the UK. The Group specialises in providing national and international clients with award winning marketing, advertising and business communications.

Group members include April-Six, Bray Leino, Big Communications, Fuse Digital, thinkBDW, Story UK and RLA. themission® employs over 550 staff nationally and is listed on AIM (TMMG).