The boss of product sampling innovator SoPost has talked of international growth and a return to profit this year.
Jonny Grubin, who founded the Newcastle tech firm in 2012, says SoPost has been investing to set itself up for winning and handling more business overseas. And he has indicated that 2025 will be an exciting year for the company which has worked with some of the world's most recognisable consumer brands including PepsiCo and L'Oreal.
The entrepreneur's comments come on the back of recently published accounts for 2023 in which SoPost saw revenues rise 38% to £18.5m as it pointed to successes in Germany, France and Australia, where it has set up outposts. The firm posted a loss, but it narrowed to £1.27m from £1.55m in the year to the end of September.
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Speaking to BusinessLive from Milan, where he was pursuing more new work, Mr Grubin said: "We saw some pretty good growth across 2023. We looked at it as an investment year and getting our structure in place so that we could continue to scale in the years to come. Our 2022 accounts were a similar story in which we grew incredibly quickly during the pandemic and recognised we could keep our foot on the gas and keep ramping up but in order to do so in a responsible way and retain the company culture meant we needed to take a step back and make sure we had the right structures in place and a solid team.
"What we saw through 2023 was a lot of that coming to fruition. We've got our product and tech exactly where it needs to be now and we made some brilliant progress on the commercial side - particularly with the recruit of a chief operating officer. It's the first time we've ever had anyone in that role."
Mr Grubin says the work will be evident in the firm's 2024 numbers with it having set up efficiencies and growth in net deal value and retention. Some of the means to invest has come from a healthy 102% rise in cash reserves to £5.4m at the business, which employs about 70 people and has bases in New York, Paris, Frankfurt and Sydney, alongside its Newcastle headquarters.
Still catering largely to big multinationals, a significant part of SoPost's attention is turned to key European markets, where it has hired boots on the ground in recent years, and in the US which continues to demonstrate growth. Mr Grubin said firm - and it's contemporaries - have found conditions more challenging in the º£½ÇÊÓƵ but that comes despite a significant deal with Japanese beauty giant Shiseido Company to promote its products across home soil. More broadly he pointed to the "lipstick effect" in which consumers continue to buy small luxuries amid times of economic hardship.
SoPost is now expected to return to profit this year, with "really positive" top line sales growth.
Mr Grubin added: "We're seeing a lot of big customer wins which really align with the strategy. I think as we get into next fiscal year, that's when things get really exciting because of the platform that we've built and being a fully-staffed tech organisation where we'll begin to see the value of the investments we've been making in the last few years."
