BSI maintains growth in year of significant investment
8 April 2020
- Strong global performance sees revenue climb by 7% to £548.1 million
- Good levels of underlying profit delivered organically and through acquisitions
- BSI continues to inspire trust and organizational resilience in 84,000 clients
BSI, the business improvement company, has announced its results for the year ended 31 December 2019. Revenue climbed seven per cent to £548.1 million, in a year which saw a substantial investment programme into the people and infrastructure of the global organization.
Key points:
- Revenue increased by 7% to £548.1m (2019: £511.9m)
- Performance maintains twenty years of unbroken revenue growth
- Average revenue per account climbed 3.5% to £5,900
- Substantial investment programme saw profits dip by 6% to £58.3m
- BSI entered 2020 with £85.1m of cash reserves
Howard Kerr, Chief Executive at BSI commented: “We have seamlessly restructured into an integrated global enterprise, able to serve clients across the world with an expanding range of services and solutions. Twenty years of unbroken revenue growth with all profits reinvested into our business gives us a strong foundation to inspire trust and resilience, reflecting our success in delivering our promises.”
BSI’s global footprint continues to grow, with the organization working in 195 countries with over 84,000 clients across a wide range of industries. 53% of the Fortune 500, 83% of the FTSE 100 and 81% of the Nikkei 225 place their trust in BSI for its global expertise. In 2019, a planned programme of investment in talent, infrastructure, product development and marketing saw profits dip, but provided a strong foundation for future profit growth.
Two key acquisitions were completed in 2019 – San Jose, US based AppSec Consulting, a cyber security and information resilience company, and HDANZ – a healthcare auditing company based in Christchurch, New Zealand. These acquisitions, in addition to boosting growth, allow BSI to offer a wider range of auditing, compliance and improvement solutions to an ever-wider client base. The appointment of sector leaders in Healthcare, Food and Retail, and Built Environment, united access to BSI’s breadth of services and strong local network of delivery resources.
BSI is now managed through four global business streams, Knowledge Solutions, Assurance Services, Regulatory Services and Consulting Services, supported by a transversal Commercial function to accelerate specific sectorial focus and growth. At actual exchange rates, Knowledge Solutions, made up of standards, services and information solutions and grew 2%, to revenues of £66.5m. Assurance Services, covering systems certification, product certification including the internationally renowned BSI KitemarkTM and training, grew 2% to £283m. Regulatory Services, which includes systems and product certification of medical devices, saw 29% growth to revenues of £119.4m. Consulting Services, which covers consultancy and supply chain solutions, grew by 3% to £79.2m.
Ahead of Britain’s exit from the European Union, BSI – in its role as the UK’s National Standards Body – has increased its engagement with the UK Government to reach a common understanding of the value of international standards. Two CEN and CENELEC (the European standards bodies) pilots in partnership with ISO (the international standards organization) helped define a new model to launch a more agile standards development process producing deliverables within weeks rather than months.
The proportion of new standards published by BSI of an international origin hit 95% in 2019, highlighting the vital role of the organization in the international standardization system. Key areas of focus included standards relating to the Fourth Industrial Revolution, including technologies such as the future of mobility, energy smart appliances, digital manufacturing, sustainable finance and the energy efficiency of buildings.
Kerr concluded: “Our rejuvenated strategy and business, now entering its 119th year, provides a strong natural hedge against economic, political and social issues. Currently, we are faced with the coronavirus pandemic. There is no doubt that this will adversely impact our 2020 results but it is too early to quantify this. We have reviewed our forecasts for the year, and performed sensitivity analysis on these, concluding that we believe that we have the resources and resilience to withstand this crisis. Details of this may be found in the Directors’ Report on pages 77 and 78 of the Annual Report and on page 83 in the report of our auditors, PricewaterhouseCoopers. I am confident that the trust in our services, and resilience of our own global operations will see us continue to promote trust and resilience across our client base and drive BSI onto further success.”
The full online edition of our annual report and financial statements 2019 can be found at https://www.bsigroup.com/en-GB/about-bsi/financial-information/
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Notes to Editors:
For a full copy of the report, please contact the press office or download https://www.bsigroup.com/globalassets/documents/about-bsi/financial-performance/2019/the-british-standards-institution-annual-report-and-financial-statements-2019.pdf