Shares in Mission Group PLC climbed 10% today despite this morning’s announcement of a change to its CEO and chair roles.
Non-executive chair David Morgan MBE intends to step down from the board at the end of the year. Current CEO John Carey (pictured) will move to executive chair.
Morgan founded Bray Leino, one of the Mission Group’s key agencies, in Exmoor in 1974 and was its CEO until 2008, building it into one of the largest UK regional agencies.
He became non-executive chair of Bray Leino in 2008 and was appointed executive chair of Mission in April 2010 – a position he held until October 2021. He returned as non-exec chair in November 2023 following months of decline in its share price.
His tenure has seen the group rebuild its balance sheet and also strengthen its board and senior leadership team, culminating in the appointment of group CEO Carey – although it issued a profit warning at the start of the year.
Mission has since undergone a strategic growth plan focused on the simplification of its agency portfolio and cost base, AI innovation and the expansion into select new growth markets.
This included the integration of B2C and B2B advertising offerings, with agencies Bray Leino and krow Group unified under the Bray Leino brand; enlargement of global sports, entertainment and lifestyle agency Mongoose, with Bray Leino Events integrated under the Mongoose brand; and repositioning of ThinkBDW as the customer journey specialist for UK housebuilders.
This morning the company also reported its results for the six months ended 30th June 2026. Despite a 3% reduction in revenue to £33 million, it broke even in terms of reported profit/loss before tax – compared with a £4m loss in the previous period.
Headline PBT – calculated before acquisition and disposal adjustments, goodwill and business impairment and restructuring costs – was £1.6m, up from £1.1m; while total debt – which includes outstanding acquisitions obligations – was also reduced from £16.2m to £11.8m.
Mission has gained more than 50% value in its share price this year, with a market cap of around £25.5m at the time of writing.
In 2024 it snubbed a £32m hostile takeover attempt from Brave Bison – the group which came under fire recently from a major shareholder for its handling of a similar approach to System1.
“As group CEO John Carey has made an overwhelming contribution to the business in the year that he has been with us,” said Morgan. “He has refocused the group, made it leaner yet more dynamic in its approach and created a senior management team that I believe is the best in the business.
“It is with that confidence in the future that I have decided to step down as chairman at the end of this year and I recommended to our board that John becomes executive chair as of January 2027.
“I am delighted that the board unanimously approved my proposal. Mission is going places and is in very safe hands.”
Carey said: “On behalf of the board and everyone at Mission I would like to thank David for his immense contribution to the group over the past three years since rejoining the board, and the many years prior.
“His announcement comes with the group in a position of strength, with a talented senior leadership team and hugely experienced board in place to continue to drive delivery of our growth strategy.
“We look forward to continuing to have the benefit of David’s depth of industry knowledge and experience before he leaves the business at the end of the year.”
He added: “The second half has begun well, with strong new business conversion and a healthy pipeline looking into the remainder of the year.
“This trading momentum, combined with the continued progress against our strategic growth priorities, reinforces the board’s confidence for the calendar year 2026 and beyond.”