RWS AR 23 Final Single pages - Flipbook - Page 8
Chairman's Statement
RWS continued to implement its mediumterm strategy during FY23, pivoting
successfully into higher growth segments,
making progress in its transformation
programme and building on its
longstanding capability to further deploy
AI into its products and operations. The
Group operates in attractive markets with
a combined global size estimated at more
than £47bn1 and a strong set of demand
drivers. RWS’s specialist knowledge and
experience across all aspects of the content
life cycle enable the Group to meet a
broad range of client needs in multiple end
markets. The Group’s scale, reputation and
highly diversi昀椀ed client base have helped it
to maintain leading positions in a range of
highly fragmented markets.
1
Sources: OC&C, Slator, CSA, WIPO, EPO, Companies House (2021)
PERFORMANCE
The Group delivered £733.8m of revenue for the year, a
decline of approximately 2% compared with the prior year
(FY22: £749.2m). This re昀氀ected a continuing challenging
economic environment, which resulted in reduced activity
in a number of our end markets. While we have taken
action to ensure that our cost base matches current levels
of activity, we remain con昀椀dent that activity levels will
recover in due course. RWS continued to demonstrate
considerable resilience, highlighting the defensive
qualities of a business that is well-diversi昀椀ed across end
markets, geographies and the solutions that it provides.
The Group recorded a loss before tax of £10.9m (FY22:
pro昀椀t of £83.2m), largely due to impairment charges of
£62.4m. Adjusted pro昀椀t before tax declined to £120.1m
(FY22: £135.7m), re昀氀ecting reduced revenues and planned
investments in growth and transformation. These have
been partly mitigated by client price increases, foreign
exchange gains of £13.0m from the Group's hedging
programme and e昀昀ective cost control, in particular the
implementation of signi昀椀cant cost actions announced
at the half year and the further migration of translation
volumes through the Language eXperience Delivery
("LXD"), our production platform.
The Group continues to have a strong balance sheet, with
net assets of £987.3m (FY22: £1,141.7m) at 30 September
2023 which included net cash of £23.6m (FY22: £71.9m).
The reduction in net assets re昀氀ects impairment charges of
£62.4m and decreasing foreign currency denominated net
assets by £60.3m, mainly due to the weakening US Dollar.
PEOPLE AND BOARD
At 30 September 2023 RWS employed 7,910 full-time
equivalents across 67 locations in 33 countries (FY22:
7,761). Our agile working policy facilitated a mix of regular
face-to-face contact to support e昀昀ective collaboration with
the advantage of the bene昀椀ts of technology in delivering
time and energy savings from a reduction in commuting.
With cost-of-living concerns in many of our locations, the
Group’s positive approach to 昀氀exible working has been
appreciated by colleagues across the world. We continued
to consider the viability of some of our locations and were
able to further reduce the number of o昀케ces by c.7%, with
associated savings in property and related costs.
Julie Southern
8
RWS Holdings plc — Annual Report 2023 STRATEGIC REPORT
