Synovate integration boosts Ipsos Q1 revenue

Revenue came in at €379.9m, up from €260.1m a year ago. Actual volume of sales was down 3.5%, but Ipsos said its performance was “entirely satisfactory” given the “strong level” of revenues recorded in Q1 2011 and the need for several teams to devote “a significant amount of time” to the merger of Ipsos and Synovate.

By region, Q1 2012 revenue was up 51% in EMEA to €176.2m, by 126% to €63.7m in Asia Pacific and by 22% to €140m in the Americas. By business line, marketing research was the top revenue generator (€196.9m), followed by advertising research (€61m), customer and employee relationship management (€46.8m), opinion and social research (€37.8m) and media research (€37.3m).

The firm raised “a note of caution” concerning the ongoing Euro-zone debt crisis, but said that with the exception of Spain, it has not been affected by the situation so far. Ipsos said it expects to report organic growth of around 2% this year and “above market growth” in 2013.