Beggars Group, the UK-based record company that owns or co-owns XL Recordings, 4AD, Rough Trade, Matador and Young Recordings, among others, has reported a 13.3% YoY jump in turnover for 2023, bringing its annual revenue above GBP £100 million for the first time.
According to its annual accounts, filed on Tuesday (August 27) with the UK’s Companies House, the company owned by Martin Mills last year brought in revenue of £103.18 million (USD $128.33 million at the average exchange rate for the year).
That number includes Beggars Group’s joint ventures, such as XL Recordings (which reported its earnings a few days earlier), in which Beggars holds a 50% stake. Beggars also holds 50% stakes in Australia’s Remote Control Records, Spanish distributor Popstock Distribuciones and record company Everlasting Records, as well as Matador Records and Rough Trade Records.
Via XL Recordings, Beggars Group holds minority stakes in Young Recordings, Mowax Labels, and publishers Beggars Music Limited, Beggars Catalogues LLP, Young Music Publishing and 4AD Songs Limited.
Excluding those joint ventures and associates, Beggars’ revenue for the year came in at £60.41 million ($75.14 million), up 15.1% YoY.
That includes Beggars’ licensing, wholesale promotion and marketing, and digital rights management businesses (majority or wholly-owned), as well as its US-based record label, and record companies Too Pure, 4AD and Playlouderecordings.
Sales and licensing of sound recordings accounted for £51.27 million ($63.77 million) of that turnover, up 13.7% YoY, while management charges accounted for £9.14 million ($11.37 million), up 23.7% YoY.
Broken down by geography, Beggars Group’s revenue is increasingly coming from outside its home country, with £12.12 million ($15.07 million) coming from the UK, down 1.5% YoY, while £48.29 million ($60.06 million) came from the world outside the UK, up 20.1% YoY.
Despite the strength in its top line, Beggars Group’s bottom line suffered a decline in 2023, with operating profit falling 11.4% YoY to £7.06 million ($8.78 million).
Beggars Group saw considerable increases in distribution costs (up about 54% YoY) and administrative expenses (up 11.6% YoY).
“Inflation has had an impact on supply chain costs and overheads, and inevitably, label margins,” the company said in its report.
The company’s operational profit came in almost equal proportions from the group’s operations (£3.57 million) and from joint ventures (£3.49 million).
Much of the joint venture revenue comes from XL Recordings, which has a relatively small but very successful catalog that includes Adele, The Avalanches, Badly Drawn Boy, Basement Jaxx, Gil Scott-Heron, Jungle, M.I.A., The Prodigy, Radiohead, Sigur Ros, Tyler the Creator, and Vampire Weekend, among others.
Adele alone has proven to be quite a boon to the company. In 2021, Beggars Group saw its profit jump 55% and turnover rise by 29.7% as the US recording rights to Adele’s first three albums – 19, 21 and 25 – reverted to XL following the end of a licensing agreement with Sony Music.
Beggars released 35 albums in 2023, up from 31 the year before, and among its commercial successes, it listed Queens of the Stone Age’s In Times New Roman (released on Matador), The National’s First Two Pages of Frankenstein (4AD), Lankum’s False Lankum (Rough Trade), Romy’s Mid Air (Young), and the single (It Goes Like) Nananana by Peggy Gou (XL).
“We’re pleased to report the above releases and many others appeared on multiple end-of-year ‘best of’ lists across print, online, retail and streaming channels,” Beggars said in the report.
The company also noted that synchronization activity “bounced back following the Hollywood writers’ strike, and we’re pleased to report strong growth and our busiest year ever with projects across film, TV, trailers, adverts, podcasts, fashion shows, exhibitions, etc.”
After paying £12 million in dividends (i.e., to Martin Mills) in 2022, the board of directors did not recommend a dividend for 2023.
The company counted 163 employees, on average, in 2023, compared to 156 the year before.
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