NEW DELHI: Publicis Groupe has decided to repay the salary sacrifice made voluntarily by 6,000 senior staff members during the worst of the Covid2019 crisis. After a solid performance in the fourth quarter, the advertising and communications giant announced that it will also set aside a higher bonus pool to fairly reward and recognise its teams.
Publicis Groupe global chief executive Arthur Sadoun remarked that he felt it was important to thank staff and "show we care."
Some executives reportedly took reductions of up to 20 per cent of salary for six months between April and September, although the sacrifice varied by market. UK executives took cuts for five months.
“When we saw at the beginning of the crisis how devastating the pandemic could be, we quickly acted to redefine our plans. This included a voluntary pay cut by around 6,000 of our managers, and a new set of objectives for the rest of the year. Thanks to the collective and extraordinary performance of our people in these difficult times, we have been able to post results that are above industry averages, allowing us to repay the salary sacrifice and set aside a higher bonus pool to fairly reward and recognise our teams,” said Sadoun.
Publicis Groupe outperformed the industry average in this year of exceptional crises by delivering a published growth of -0.9 per cent in 2020 and organic growth at -6.3 per cent for the year, with a Q4 ahead of market expectations at -3.9 per cent.
Sadoun added, “This is the result of our ability to capture the shift in our clients’ investment towards digital channels, e-commerce and direct-to-consumer, which intensified throughout the year. It is particularly visible in the US where Epsilon delivered growth of 5.5 per cent in Q4, enabling our most important country to be slightly positive. This was also the case for Publicis Sapient.”
Publicis gained market share by growing with its top 200 clients by 1.8 per cent, and recorded a continued new business momentum with wins like Kraft-Heinz, Reckitt Benckiser, Pfizer, Visa, L’Oréal in China, TikTok and Sephora.
“Last but not least, we continued to post the best financial ratios of the industry with an operating margin rate of 16 per cent and a free cash flow of close to €1.2 billion while significantly reducing our net debt at around €800 million at year-end,” Sadoun added.
