The Meetings, Events and Communications division of Grass Roots has announced its results for the 2008-2009 financial year with profits before tax in excess of £1.6 million.

The business rebranded in December and brought the four separate UK companies: Grass Roots EventCom Ltd, Grass Roots HBI Ltd, Grass Roots DMS Ltd and Grass Roots Live Ltd under one division and the leadership of Nick Bender, Head of Global Events, Grass Roots.

Nick Bender commented: “Trading is always difficult in a recession but I am very pleased with our results. Our current financial year (July 2009–June 2010) continues to be challenging as reduced budgets come into operation. However, we are currently seeing a healthy pipeline for the latter part of 2010 and into 2011 which is very encouraging and I am confident we will soon return to increased profitable growth”.

In the first six months of the year Grass Roots acquired 22 new events & communications clients including Biogen, Pfizer, BP Castrol & the Learning Grid and were awarded several multi-year contracts and preferred supplier status.

Nick continued: “Plans for the coming year include the delivery of a rigorous Preferred Supplier/Partner Programme with the aim of providing our clients with the best supply chain in the industry, continued enhancement of our Healthcare team and further expansion of the business globally, notably in Asia-Pac & North America”.

During the financial year Grass Roots has handled 4,200 meetings & events and 175 communication projects, touched 170,000 delegates, issued 6,900 scheduled & 6,200 private charter airline tickets, built in excess of 100 registration websites, collected £42m event fees on behalf of clients and improved its collection rate from 99.97% to 99.9992%.