Beattie turnover up 17% to £8.6m

Beattie's group managing director Laurna Woods and company founder Gordon Beattie

Marketing, media and PR group Beattie said it generated record profits of £590,000 and grew turnover by 17% to £8.6 million in 2015.

Now headquartered in London, Beattie has eight offices across the UK including Glasgow, Manchester and Leeds.

The group, founded by former Glasgow area journalist Gordon Beattie, provides PR, social, creative and digital marketing services.

New client wins for Beattie have included cosmetics brand Avon, Merck’s Seven Seas account and French fashion label La Redoute.

Laurna Woods, Beattie’s group managing director, said the good performance had continued into the first half of this financial year.

“We have an extremely talented team and their ability to delight our clients resulted in us winning considerably more business from existing customers,” said Woods.

“At the same time we captured numerous new brands.”

Beattie said it has invested in growing its Only Travel, Only Health and Only Retail boutiques, trebled the size of its Manchester office and has recruited additional programmers, search specialists, designers and client managers into its Only Digital business.

Beattie said that 11ten, the education marketing and student recruitment brand in which it has a 50% stake, saw its turnover increase by 62% to £5.1 million.

Beattie said it has committed to creating 30 new jobs in 2016 to mark its 30th anniversary.

It said at least 14 new recruits had already joined Beattie including Tony Bilsborough, a former PR executive at Mondelēz International and Cadbury in the UK.

Bilsborough now leads the Beattie team in Birmingham.