Aeorema Communications plc, group owner of Cheerful Twentyfirst and Eventful Limited, has reported a number of project delays in its current financial year, due to a challenging economic landscape for clients.

Interim results showed a loss of £243,534 for the six months to 31 December 2023, compared to a profit of £326,021 a year earlier, while revenue was down 8% to £6.6 million.

The group said in a statement that it expects to report a near record profit of £650,000 in the second half of their financial year, based on projecting revenue for the full year of no less than £19 million, which it is confident of achieving.

“What many may not realise is that our financial year runs July – June. With a few bigger projects moving into the latter half of this year and into early next year, i.e., our next financial year, we are adapting to a different seasonality-cycle of events,” said CEO Steve Quah.

He said that the new trend reflects the fact that many clients are facing a challenging economic landscape, resulting in some delays in the decision-making process on committing spend and, in some cases, a temporary postponement of their events.

“It’s normal for some projects to move show dates, historically we’ve been glad to offer our clients some flexibility in that regard, however it has certainly been a greater trend this year,” Quah continued.

“Our forecasts for the full 23/24 year remain healthy and are in parallel with continued investment in the UK and USA. In fact, the result of this movement means our second half of the year is expected to near our most profitable on record. And beyond this, our pipeline for FY 24/25 remains very strong.”