The following is an extract from the The LAB 2021 Annual Report
Financial Highlights
For the financial year ending October 2021, The LAB continued along a path of increased profitability and revenue growth. Revenue and net profits grew by 34.7% and 22.4% respectively. Shareholder equity also increased by $51.4 million to $515.7 million, up from $464.2 million year over year and return on average equity delivered to shareholders was 28.8%.
Revenue
During the year 2021, we generated a significant increase in revenues of $316.0 million to $1.2 billion relative to the prior year. This was attributable to significant growth in our key business lines; Production (up $147.9 million or 63.21%) and Media (up $172.9 million or 35.14%), even though there was a marginal decline in Agency (down $5.4 million or 2.94%).
Profitability
Gross profit increased by 25.8% or $77.1 million relative to the previous year. Also, our net profit was $155 million which was $28.4 million higher than the previous year. Return on equity for the year was 29.8% and earnings per share increased from $0.13 to
$0.16.
Payment of Dividends
We are pleased to advise that on December 29, 2021 our Board of Directors approved a resolution to declare a final ordinary dividend of $0.0133 per share and a Special Dividend of $0.038 per share. These payments were made on January 31, 2022, to all shareholders on record as of January 13, 2022.
Outlook
Propelled by last year’s progress, for the 2021 financial year, The LAB was able to facilitate marketplace innovations that directly aligned with our mission to become the leader in integrated marketing and production in the region. While the year 2020 will be forever remembered as the year everything changed, at The LAB, the year 2021 became the year for realigning and operationalizing in response to the transformed creative landscape.
As the creative industry landscape evolved, we correspondingly realigned the Company’s strategic vision, redefined performance metrics measured against internal targets and external benchmarks, both regionally and internationally.
Financial (including cost optimization and risk management) and non-financial (including client satisfaction, employee engagement and innovation) measures were utilised to monitor our performance periodically, from daily and weekly to monthly, quarterly and annually.
Changing Trends & Innovation
The Company, for the 2021 financial year, continued executing its five-year strategic plan. The LAB saw a five-year innovation timeline accelerate to within a year as both the society and economy were digitised at meteoric speeds. The rapid growth in online platforms like TikTok quickly signalled to us that the pandemic was accelerating the trends on which we based our vision for The LAB, such as having a borderless company, the explosion of digital experiences for customers, and the growing demand from clients for simple, integrated solutions that combine outstanding creativity with data and technological skills.
The actions taken during 2019 and 2020 to streamline our operations including establishing and hiring specifically to address media and digital innovation meant that we entered 2021 with a strong financial position. Although the effects of the pandemic have been devastating on local and regional economies, the Company posted a noteworthy performance for the fiscal year.
This financial success can be attributed to a number of factors including the implementation of cautious, pre-emptive cost containment measures and guiding, and collaborating with our clients virtually, to ascertain their needs and provide inventive solutions, as their companies navigated the effects of the pandemic. The close relationships with our clients, allowed us to understand their requirements, react quickly to changing consumer behaviour and recommend and create solutions to deliver on clients’ needs.
Kimala Bennett, the CEO and founder of The LAB
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