As we turn the page on another annual chapter in Cantarus’ history, I find myself reflecting on the last 12 months with a mixture of pride, gratitude, and excitement for what’s to come. FY23/24 wasn’t just another year of delivering world-class digital experiences; it marked numerous significant milestones in our journey that have laid the foundations for our trajectory over the next five years.
From celebrating the 21st year in business (I genuinely cannot believe it has been that long – we’ve come a very long way since our humble beginnings back in 2003!) to welcoming 24 new talented individuals to our team, celebrating internal promotions galore, and even expanding our C-suite, welcoming Brendan Killough and Mark Eichler as Chief Delivery Officer and Chief Product Officer respectively.
Cantarus has more than doubled in size over the last five years, with our headcount now over 70 people across four countries. This is a testament to our commitment to delivering consistently excellent outcomes for our client-partners. To help fuel this rapid growth, we’ve combined increased headcount with substantial productivity improvements to drive a significant increase in revenue per employee as well as headline revenue.
In terms of key financial metrics from the last 12 months, we’ve again attained what the World Economic Forum classes as Rapid-growth, that being a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 20-40% over a year or more. Indeed, we’ve sustained a CAGR over 20% for well beyond the last decade!
Zooming in a little, Q2 marked a monumental milestone as the best quarter in our history, but was quickly beaten by Q4, giving us a great end to the year.
FY23/24 also marked the year we made our move in the US market after many months of preparation and years of thinking before that. This strategic expansion was spearheaded by the recruitment of our first-ever US-based employee, Rob Kaighn, as Director, North America & Global Partnership. We bolstered this with a blended UK/US team at major US events, including the Umbraco US Summit, ASAE Annual Meeting & Exposition and Higher Logic’s Super Forum.
Our partnerships continued to flourish as we proudly became an Umbraco Platinum Partner as part of the first cohort in the UK and the very first such Partner in the US - this also made us the first multi-country Umbraco Platinum Partner in the world. Shortly thereafter, we were recognised as an Umbraco Contributing Platinum Partner, reflecting our contribution to the wider Umbraco ecosystem.
Whilst continuing to build our partnership with leading DXP vendor, Kentico, we also deepened our relationships with many top-tier CRM/AMS platforms in the membership and associations sector, further strengthening our market stance.
We changed the methodology for our bi-annual Net Promoter Score (NPS) survey this year, tweaking the audience to include more senior decision-makers, budget-holders and influencers at our client-partners. Whilst this change was made with some trepidation (perhaps such people are even harder to please than those ‘at the coal face’?!) we were delighted to see a score of +65 this year, surpassing the ‘excellent’ benchmark of +50, as well as being far in excess of the industry standard of +28 to +36 (depending on the source).
Our achievements certainly haven’t been without their challenges of course. Think the ongoing consequences of the global pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, spiking energy prices, high inflation, and the general ‘flat’ state of the UK economy. Despite that, we’ve successfully managed to continue growing our business, all whilst preserving the unique company culture that makes Cantarus the vibrant agency it is.
Our member mobile app and online community offering has continued to evolve at pace, boasting enhancements that encapsulate our commitment to leading-edge technology and user-centric design. We’re proud to have introduced new functionality to our MemConnect member mobile app platform, including digital membership cards and a rich integration enabling digital publications, magazines and journals to be read, searched, and saved on phones and tablets. We’ve also revamped our Higher Logic online community integration to deliver a best-of-breed member experience.
The introduction of a new HR SaaS platform will enable us to operate regular temperature checks across the business to ensure employee satisfaction rates remain as high as ever, and that team morale remains robust.
In a heartening development further reflective of our ethos, we have become a foster-friendly employer with our client, The Fostering Network. This initiative highlights our dedication to creating an inclusive, supportive work environment and we thoroughly recommend it to all UK businesses.
Continuing to increase our work with Umbraco Cloud has provided our clients with huge benefits regarding digital sustainability, a topic we explored in a recent webinar with Socitm. Sustainability remains a core focus for us as we step into the next year.
Looking ahead, we’ll soon be moving to a brand new, 80% larger office space here in central Manchester. We’ve been in our current space for six years, and as wonderful as it's been, it’s no longer sustainable for our growing team, even with a flexible hybrid working policy! We’re very excited by this much more ‘creative-feeling’ space which feels infinitely more reflective of who we are as an agency today.
Preparations are in full swing for another busy year of events, including the upcoming DIGX conference and ASAE Annual Meeting in the summer. We’ve got big ambitions for the US too, along with continuing to work with Umbraco and Kentico, and developing our products even further.
As we embark into FY24/25, I want to express my deepest appreciation to our client-partners, technology and strategic partners, and of course, the entire, amazing, utterly wonderful, Cantarus team.
To my team I say, “Your hard work, innovation and commitment to excellence are the engine of our success; thankyou! I’m very excited to see what the future holds for us, and look forward to continuing what we do best, but with new, exciting opportunities on the horizon – watch this space!
To our client-partners I say, “Thanks for continuing to believe and invest in our people, services and technology. Be assured, our commitment to your success is stronger than ever and we will remain laser-focused on delivering ever greater value for you over the next year and beyond.”
