The founder of Teesside digital agency Visualsoft says new jobs are set to be created as part of ambitious growth plans, after hailing 2020 as a memorable year for the business.
The full service eCommerce agency, which employs more than 280 people across offices in Stockton, Newcastle, Manchester and Dubai, said the arrival of the pandemic ramped up activity in the e-commerce sector which has led to “spectacular” results for its clients.
As a result, Visualsoft revenues rose from £14.9m to £16.5m in the year ended June 30 2020, accounts show. Operating profit also jumped from £1.45m to £1.68m and profit for the financial year came in at £1.59m, up from £1.25m.
A breakdown of turnover showed sales grew across all of its key areas of the 海角视频, rest of Europe and rest of the world, with the 海角视频 making up the lion’s share of revenue at with £15.67m.
Visualsoft, which was one of the first in the country to implement unlimited holidays and unmonitored flexible working policy to all staff members seven years ago, said it made further investments in office space, facilities and staff during the year, while also working on enhancing its core technology.
It said just over 1% of all 海角视频 online retail transactions now happen on its platform.
In the accounts, CEO and founder Dean Benson said: “2019/20 has been a memorable and very positive year for Visualsoft. Building on the hard work of previous years we made strides in delivering on our ambitious growth plans. Unfortunately for the world we have had the major interruption of Covid-19.
“Fortunately for Visualsoft and despite some initial negatives, this virus has only served to accelerate an already buoyant e-commerce sector. As a result we have seen some spectacular growth for clients using our services.“
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After the year end, last November, Visualsoft secured an undisclosed but significant funding boost from mid-market private equity investors Livingbridge to fuel the continued expansion and innovation of its successful eCommerce platform.
Following the publication of the accounts, Mr Benson said the firm is now set to accelerate its rate of job creation as it targets more growth.
He said: “The 2020 financial year was a really exciting one for Visualsoft - perhaps a bit too exciting at times. We began the year with plans to grow the business and to put the customer at the heart of everything we did. We made excellent progress on this and had our best ever Black Friday and Christmas period. We were growing the business well and serving our customers better than ever.
“By the end of the year everything had changed, we never lost sight of our objectives, but we now had a pandemic to contend with. Like everyone around the country we found the first months of the pandemic a challenging time, there was a lot of uncertainty and we faced a lot of challenges we have never faced before.
“It was perhaps one of the most uncertain times Visualsoft has faced since our very early days when it was just me and a few others. By the end of June the situation was much more clear. It was a source of real pride for me personally that the platform I have worked almost half my life on was one of the biggest factors in allowing our clients to survive, and thrive, during the pandemic.
“Like many other businesses our size we also knew we would benefit from a boost and from outside expertise to really push our products and to reach a wider market. Livingbridge has excellent relevant experience and their team brought so much exciting expertise to the table, plus their team felt like a great fit for ours. They’ve more than lived up to expectations thus far too.
“Visualsoft will be creating a large number of new tech, marketing and sales roles over the coming 12 months. To put this in context we have hired perhaps 20 or 30 people a year over recent years to grow our teams, I expect we will more than double this rate of hiring in the next year. I see the next few months as a real step change for us.”