Nordic Morning
Nordic Morning business area comprises: Nordic Morning Finland Oy in Finland and Nordic Morning Sweden AB and Mods Graphic Studio AB in Sweden.
The business area’s net revenue was EUR 44.4 million (EUR 53.0 million). In Finland, net revenue increased from EUR 11.1 million to EUR 12.1 million. In Sweden, net revenue declined from EUR 42.3 million to EUR 32.9 million.
The business area’s operating loss was EUR -1.0 million (EUR -2.9 million). The operating profit improved significantly, as the previous year’s profit was weighed down by rationalization expenses of EUR 1.4 million related to the discontinuation of Nordic Morning Data-Driven Content AB operations in Malmö and Gothenburg. During 2018 the office in Norrköping has been closed down, which leaves Nordic Morning Sweden with offices in Stockholm and Malmö. Operating profit excluding non-recurring items was EUR -0.7 (-0.4) million. Operating profit excluding non-recurring items declined both in Finland and Sweden, even though Mods Graphic Studio AB made an excellent result.
| 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Net revenue (M€) | 44.4 | 53.0 | 60.5 |
| Operating profit/loss (M€) | -1.0 | -2.9 | -14.1 |
| Employees (average) | 262 | 307 | 374 |
Nordic Morning creates digital experiences that transform businesses. We drive change for the largest enterprises and brands in the Nordics by building and running their Digital Growth Engines. Our ways of working help companies become truly customer-centric by combining our capabilities within business transformation, service design, technology, data-driven marketing and content.
The business area was formed in 2017 by merging five agencies into one. CountQuest, KliKKi, Seed, Ottoboni and Sitrus came together to form Nordic Morning – a data-driven marketing and service design business.
Year 2018
The world is changing. Driven by digital transformation, industries and society are undergoing widespread transformation. This digitalization puts pressure on enterprises to increase their understanding, and expectations, of the end users. Nordic Morning is perfectly positioned to create this understanding, and tailor digital solutions that cater to the needs and expectations of the end user.
2018 has been a year of continued transformation for the business area according to the strategic direction put in place during 2017.
The demand for our services is growing, mainly driven by the increased usage of data and analytics for marketing purposes. This pushes our customers to rethink the way they work with marketing, and also how they are organized. Transformational guidance and how to combine Data and Marketing Technology solutions, Data Driven Content and Service Design is increasingly demanded by clients. And with many markets and industries facing uncertain levels of economic growth, the incentive to adopt more effective and efficient data-driven marketing will increase even more.
To meet our customers’ needs, the combining of our capabilities, internal processes and ways of working have been a major focus to execute on our strategy this year. Mods Graphic Studio AB returned an excellent result and have made major changes to their business operations during the year, setting up an additional office in Stockholm.
Outlook for 2019
The market we are in, the market of change, will continue to grow in 2019. The steps we’ve taken in 2018 to position Nordic Morning in this market will benefit us in 2019.
For 2019 we will continue our efforts to provide supreme customer advice in digitalization from a marketing perspective. To continue to sharpen our services, we will focus on attracting, and developing our talent and further refine our organizational set up, in order to further position the business for profitable growth.
Edita Publishing
Edita Publishing business area comprises of Edita Publishing Oy in Finland.
The business area’s net revenue was EUR 13.9 million (EUR 14.9 million). Net revenue was reduced by a decrease in advertising sales, but the sales of digital services and learning materials continued to develop favorably.
The business area’s operating profit was EUR 3.0 million (EUR 4.5 million). Operating profit was reduced by lower advertising sales but increased by the favorable development in orders for learning materials.
| 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Net revenue (M€) | 13.9 | 14.9 | 13.0 |
| Operating profit/loss (M€) | 3.0 | 4.5 | 2.4 |
| Employees (average) | 83 | 78 | 77 |
The world is changing fast due to digital transformation. As a result, everyone needs to consider updating and refreshing their knowledge and skills regularly.
Edita Publishing is a knowledge company providing smart learning and legal content and services. Edita Publishing serves a wide range of customers in public, private and third sector organizations. It also has a tight partnership and collaboration with the educational, legal and public sector.
Year 2018
During 2018 the company’s offering was repackaged to align it with the strategic direction, which is to be a leading knowledge company in Smart Learning and Legal. Today, the business comprises of three business segments, serving the Finnish market: the Educational sector, Legal sector and Organizations. In its entirety the year 2018 was very successful for Edita Publishing. The business developed steadily and grew in some areas.
The company did extremely well in providing learning materials for basic education, based on the renewal of curricula, and the company was able to increase its market share. During the fall, Edita Publishing was awarded the BELMA (Best European Learning Material Award) prize for the digital learning material Business Bites.
During 2018 international business opportunities were identified and demand for pedagogical publications grew moderately. NPDL (New Pedagogies for Deep Learning) and other trainings were provided for Educational sector, as before.
Within the legal sector, legal design and tech is a growing trend. During 2018 Edita Publishing organized its bi-annual legal event, Käräjät, and worked in cooperation in several international legal tech events and hackathons in Finland. Edita Publishing was selected as a provider for the AI project, ANOPPI, to develop tools for automatic anonymization and content description with the Ministry of Justice and Aalto University. The development project of company’s Credita information service was finalized.
The development of the new business segment Organizations was started. As a new business the Organizations area contains Smart Learning and content offering for developing organizations. The new Smart Learning offering was also succesfully presented to some clients of our sister companies. In 2018 the business of traditional content projects for Organizations grew.
In 2018 the marketing and consent management database was developed. A GDPR program was established. The internal guiding principles were developed with all employees and sister companies. Hackathons were promoted as a new innovation method to employees. Training in GDPR, Microsoft Office, marketing tools and English were organized.
Outlook for 2019
The development continues according to the strategy and the company is moving towards more data-driven business with the aim to further create better customer experience.
The demand for learning materials in basic education is expected to decline temporarily after curricula changes take place. Many environmental changes are occurring currently within the educational sector, e.g. cost-free upper secondary level can have an impact on the supply chain in the future. On the other hand, digital transformation is impacting legislation. In order to be compliant and trusted, companies and people need access to intelligent services and relevant information in a timely manner. Society as a hole is facing a need for digital and lifelong learning, which is creating possibilities for the company’s Smart learning offering. In addition, the new Organizations business segment will be strengthened this year, too.
Edita Prima
Edita Prima business area comprises Edita Prima Oy in Finland.
The business area’s net revenue was EUR 18.9 million (EUR 26.7 million).The business operations in Sweden were divested in the previous year, which explains the year-on-year decrease in net revenue. In Finland, net sales declined due to weaker demand for traditional printing services.
The business area’s operating profit was EUR 0.9 million (EUR 2.9 million). The previous year’s operating profit included EUR 1.7 million in net non-recurring items, mostly related to gains on the disposal of fixed assets and business operations. In Finland, operating profit excluding non-recurring items was EUR 0.9 (1.3) million. The lower profit was due to a decline in net revenue.
| 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Net revenue (M€) | 18.6 | 26.7 | 31.0 |
| Operating profit/loss (M€) | 0.9 | 2.9 | 0.1 |
| Employees (average) | 86 | 122 | 158 |
Edita Prima provides automated processes for customer communication management. We help our clients to eliminate inefficiencies and to improve customer experience.
Year 2018
Edita Prima is on a change journey from declining print market to growing market of customer communication management. In 2018 we continued to develop our business operations according to our strategy which was renewed in 2017. We succeeded in winning several new remarkable assignments and as a result we reached the growth target for our strategic offering in 2018. The company´s overall
operational efficiency improved and Edita Prima exceeded the profitability target.
We are truly proud to work with our excellent clients. Many of them are recognized as a leading player of the Finnish or the Nordic’s market. In the recent customer survey, which was conducted in late 2018, we received a record high evaluation from our clients. 88% of respondents were satisfied or extremely satisfied. NPS score was 53 and the overall rating was 5.2 out of 6. As in many previous surveys Edita Prima is recognized as a reliable and trusted service provider and a partner which delivers value to its clients.
According to our change strategy we focused a lot on people and competence development. We made several successful new recruitments during 2018. In summary, we strengthened our capabilities substantially to deliver the new offering. Employee satisfaction was measured three times with improving results in each survey. According to the latest survey, the overall employee satisfaction was 4.35 out of 6.
Outlook for 2019
The growth of GDP is predicted to slow which will mean organisations will focus more on operational efficiency. This aligns well with our offering since we are renewing and streamlining processes and providing automation.
In addition, we foresee data and technology as playing a bigger role in marketing and communication processes. We will continue to strengthen our capabilities and continue to invest in new technology in order to further develop our offering.
Based on the growth already achieved in our strategic offering and several remarkable assignments that we’ve won in the past year, we have high expectations and targets for sustainable growth in 2019.
