Glasgow marketing agency boosting ranks amid increased turnover forecast

A Glasgow-based smart mobile marketing and technology company is growing its workforce by more than a third after accelerating its annual turnover expectations.

CEO Grant Fraser said the firm has upped its forecast annual turnover to £12m, based on the 'huge success' of the first quarter. Picture: contributed.

Digitonic states that since it started out a decade ago it has powered in excess of a billion interactions between brands and consumers across six continents.

Chief executive Grant Fraser said Digitonic could be among the fastest-growing companies in the UK and he stressed that it has managed to grow revenues in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, receiving support from Scottish Enterprise through its Pivotal Enterprise Resilience Fund.

The firm was eyeing annual turnover of £10 million in its current financial year, ending in October – but it has now upped its forecast to £12m and is hiring based on this new target on the back of a record first quarter.

Digitonic currently has 31 staff, up from 27 in March, and is looking to add 12 permanent roles over the next couple of months to have 43 full-time staff. “This huge growth has been generated via successful internationalisation into Canada, the US, India and now Australia,” Mr Fraser said.

The firm has a presence in London and India as well as Glasgow, and has also now established a subsidiary in the US. It has worked with the likes of KFC, Lettingweb, Renault, Audi, and Mecca Bingo.

Also on the books are drone specialist Draganfly Inc, which has headquarters in the US and Canada, and Arizona-based, Nasdaq-listed alkaline water firm Alkaline88.

Digitonic in its last full financial year saw sales grow 136 per cent from the previous 12 months to reach £7.8m, and in the first quarter of its current financial year they have so far increased by 188 per cent year on year to £3.3m.

It also comes after March and April last year were “extremely challenging months with every revenue stream in the company significantly affected”, and the owner/managers opting to take no salary.

Global horizons

All of its turnover related to investor relations is generated through international clients, with the Scottish business saying it is “a model example of a growing Scottish company that is truly internationalising”. Mr Fraser also stressed the geographical diversity of the team, encompassing French, Italian, Guatemalan, Indian, English, Spanish/Brazilian, Irish and Czech staff as well as Scots.

The company in September said it was boosting headcount after reporting “significant” recent growth and seeing turnover exceed £1 million in both June and July.

Mr Fraser said at the time: “March and April were incredibly challenging months for us as a business and we knew we needed to adapt quickly. Since then, we’ve worked incredibly hard to ensure we were able to keep jobs safe and get all furloughed team members back to work as quickly as possible – resulting in some of our busiest months on record.”

That came after it in 2019 sold a 10 per cent stake to a client, valuing the business at £10m, and doubling its valuation from just nine months previously.

The firm was founded by Mr Fraser and Iain Wilcox, who each invested £2,000 to buy two laptops, two mobile phones, and settle the first payment for a small office in Glasgow.

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