(AOF) – In 2021, Hopscotch made a net profit of 3.995 million euros against a loss of 8.686 million in 2020. Current operating income was 6.8 million euros against a loss of 2.306 million a year earlier. It represents 10% of the gross margin. “We consider that the current operating profit is roughly made up for 1/3 of non-recurring items and 2/3 of a return to a normally profitable operation, or 6% of the gross margin”, indicates the communication group. Turnover increased by 26% to 153.679 million.
The group’s activity recovered thanks to the recovery of mainly events, international, and the continued growth observed in the Public Relations and digital businesses.
Hopscotch recalls that it is however impossible to compare the 2021 financial year with the previous year which had been strongly impacted by the drop in events, by the various support measures activated, and by structural management decisions. The latter had been fully provisioned for the 2020 financial year.
In addition, the group has significantly lowered its break-even threshold with the reduction of realized structural costs.
Hopscotch believes that the 2022 financial year should be good overall, with the return of face-to-face events and the return of the Mondial de l’Automobile in October.
The group is not directly affected by the events in Ukraine due to its locations or the nature of its businesses. Only exposure to general economic risk could change business trends.
“Stabilized and managed in an agile manner, the group will be able to adapt and maintain its tradition of profitable growth. Opportunities to accelerate further with external growth will be sought since the group has retained the capacity”, assures the company.
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Media: Gradual disappearance of the free press and m
regional press reports
The pandemic has heavily affected the free press, which is already struggling. The first title to collapse was the daily Metro, which ceased publication in 2015. The health crisis led to a drop in advertising spending for several months while the economic model of these titles is based entirely on advertising revenue. In addition, the disaffection of public transport, the generalization of teleworking in companies have further reinforced the unfavorable context. According to data from the ACPM (Alliance for Press and Media Figures), the free news press saw a drop in circulation of 54.3% in 2020, compared to the year 2019. The only survivor is now the newspaper 20 Minutes (created in 2002). Since June 2021, its paper edition has been distributed three days a week. After a 38% drop in turnover in 2020, it is banking on digital to bounce back.
As for La PQR (regional daily press), it is stepping up initiatives to boost digital subscriptions, after having long been spared the crisis in press distribution thanks to subscriptions. According to the ACPM Observatory, the share of digital versions on the Internet (individual and by third party) represents 57.3% of the circulation of the national daily press, but only reaches 10% for the regional dailies. To retain digital subscribers, who are more volatile than paper subscribers, regional dailies are expanding their content offer. Thus five publishers (“Le Télégramme”, “La Voix du Nord”, “Sud-Ouest”, “La Nouvelle République du Centre-Ouest”, and “Ebra”, a subsidiary of Crédit Mutuel grouping together several titles) have joined forces in the television within a company, Territoires TV, to better monetize their digital audiences.