The new owner of Social Chain has laid off more than a quarter of staff since it acquired the storied agency for around £7.7m in February.
The agency was originally founded in Manchester in 2014 by a team of founders including Dragons’ Den star Steven Bartlett and Fearless Adventures founder Dominic McGregor.
It quickly made a name for itself, working alongside similarly hip brands such as Apple Beats and TikTok. The company would go on to merge with Wanja Sören Oberhof’s German commerce company Lumaland, and the merged entity would ultimately achieve a market valuation of over $600m by the early 2020s although most of the founding team, including Bartlett in 2019, had departed the company by this point.
Recently, the parent Social Chain AG company has been in the process of selling off its agency side businesses, including Social Chain to London-based Brave Bison in February.
Now, in Brave Bison’s half-year accounts filed with the London Stock Exchange, it has been revealed that it has cut headcount by 28 per cent since the acquisition, in a move it said would save the company around £1m.
Social Chain, which had a staff of 122 at acquisition in offices in Manchester, London and New York, contributed £3.6m in revenue and made a £100,000 loss between its acquisition and September 13. For the six months to June 30, 2023, Brave Bison increased its revenue by 15 per cent to £16.9m, while it slipped from a pre-tax profit of £1m to a loss of £200,000.
Executive chairman Oliver Green said: “We are pleased to report a period of stable profitability despite a difficult macro-economic backdrop.
“The core Brave Bison business has performed in-line with our expectations, and the turnaround of Social Chain is showing encouraging progress with a number of recent customer wins including national brands such as Asda, The Army and Holland & Barrett.”
“The board believes that Social Chain, which was loss-making at the time of acquisition, has the potential to become one of Brave Bison’s strongest brands.”
He continued: “The business has been comprehensively restructured, including property disposals, back office and systems integration with Brave Bison and a reduction in headcount of 28%, which is expected to result in an adjusted EBITDA Social Chain profit for the current financial year.
“Turnarounds always present challenges, but we are encouraged with progress made to date.”
