Marketing group Core records 33% rise in profit

Marketing communications company Core saw its net profit rise 33 per cent to €1.69 million in 2022, accounts just filed at the Companies Office show.

Documents for Magalas Ltd, the holding company for Core, show that the group’s billings last year arrived at €238 million, up from €226.9 million in 2021. Its operating profit arrived at €2.57 million, up from €1.57 million the year before.

The group, which buys advertising and agrees other marketing deals on behalf of its clients, operates across nine practices in total, including a creative advertising practice that it described as “fast-growing”.

The agency has created campaigns for the National Lottery, the Health Service Executive and KFC, among other clients, while its other practice areas are data, investment, learning, media, recruitment, research, sponsorship and strategy.

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The company, which is now 49 per cent owned by French advertising network Publicis Groupe, employed an average of 325 people in 2022, down from 341 the previous year. Employee numbers have increased to 350 since the end of 2022, however, it said.

Directors’ remuneration increased to about €951,000 last year, up from €667,000 in 2021.

Core is the largest buyer of advertising in the Republic, where all of its billings are located.

The Dublin-based company is led by chief executive Aidan Greene, who succeeded Alan Cox in January 2022, while its chairman for seven years until December 2022 was Patrick Coveney, the former Greencore chief who now leads SSP Group.

Core said it had experienced a strong performance across its practices to date in 2023, despite an economic backdrop of uncertain consumer confidence and rising costs, which have had a knock-on impact on its clients’ marketing budgets.