Gofore Plc: Gofore Plc’s Business Review 1 � 31 December 2021: Good year end � December net sales EUR 9.7 million, full-year 2021 net sales growth 34%

GOFORE PLC STOCK EXCHANGE RELEASE INSIDE INFORMATION 12 JANUARY 2022 AT 12:50

Gofore Plc’s Business Review 1 � 31 December 2021: Good year end – December net sales EUR 9.7 million, full-year 2021 net sales growth 34%

Gofore’s net sales for the fourth quarter (1 October–31 December 2021) were EUR 31.2 million (2020: EUR 24.3 million), with a growth of 28.5% from the previous year.

Net sales for the full-year 2021 were EUR 104.5 million (EUR 78.0 million), with a growth of 34.1%.

Gofore’s net sales in December 2021 amounted to EUR 9.7 million (EUR 7.1 million). At the end of the period, the group employed a total of 852 persons (724 persons).

CEO Mikael Nylund comments:

“December marked a very successful closure to 2021. Good customer demand has enabled an excellent rate of invoicing, and our recruitments have been a success. Our full-year net sales grew by 34.1% year-on-year to EUR 104.5 million. In 2021, our number of employees increased by 18% from the end of 2020. 

The solid trend in organic growth in the second half of the year continued and organic growth in the last quarter already reached approximately 20%. Overall, Gofore’s net sales grew by 28.5% year-on-year in the fourth quarter. We were particularly successful in our recruiting activities, and during the quarter our number of employees increased by as many as 38 new Goforeans. During the quarter, our attention was also focused especially on the well-being of Goforeans due to the resurfacing of the coronavirus situation and, as a result, the return to partial remote working mode. However, the impact on the business has thus so far been minor. 

During the quarter, we also worked on devising our company-specific collective agreement. In January, we reached a significant milestone when we were among the first in our industry to publish our own collective agreement. We have been building the agreement in close cooperation with the elected representatives, employees and trade unions representatives. The collective agreement broadly reflects Gofore’s values, corporate culture, as well as our thinking and practices, while also including a salary solution based on our company’s growth and profitability. Our own collective agreement is primarily culturally important to us and contributes to maintaining our competitiveness in a competitive labour market. 
  
From the customer front, I would like to highlight our strengthened cooperation with the airport network provider Finavia, who selected us as their provider of ICT project manager services in December. Expert services are allocated to projects at Finavia’s airports and operations and utilised in managing several project portfolios. Four other suppliers, in addition to Gofore, were selected for the framework agreement, with its value being approximately EUR 4 million. For Gofore, the agreement duration is four years (3 + 1 year option). 
  
We are also solidifying our role in developing information systems for e-services and early childhood education and care for families with children in Finland. In addition to the cities of Espoo and Tampere, we will be continuing to develop the system now also in Oulu and Turku. The development of the early childhood education and care system, which began in Espoo in 2017, has grown into a multi-city joint project, in which digital urban services are built on a city-led basis. The value of the agreement concluded with the cities of Oulu and Turku is approximately EUR 0.6 million in 2022.  

The acquisition of Devecto Oy, announced in January, will increase our private sector customer base and reinforce our digital service offering in the smart industry in particular. Digital solutions and software are becoming increasingly important as our customers intensify the integration of product development, IT and business development. We want to be a key digitalisation partner within industry, which is why Devecto’s expertise and customer relationships stemming from smart devices and telecommunications are of particular value to us. With the acquisition, we welcomed a team of 130 experts from the beginning of January. As a community, together we represent the human-driven excellence in digitalisation. 
  
Gofore continued its growth in 2021. Our growth has continued on an uninterrupted basis for 17 consecutive financial years, thanks to our customers and all Goforeans now and earlier along the way. Our success in the latter part of the year in terms of organic growth, along with the recent corporate acquisition, provide a good point of departure for building growth in 2022”.

In its monthly business reviews, Gofore publishes the net sales and the number of personnel for the month ended, along with the comparison figures. The reviews also contain other key indicators and a comparison of the key figures between different periods, which facilitates the monitoring of the company’s growth strategy. The featured figures include the Full Time Equivalent (FTE) overall capacity and the FTE figures for subcontracting. Furthermore, in connection with the business reviews for March and September, also EBITA, adjusted EBITA and EBITA, % for the quarter ending in that month, along with the comparison figures are published. Business reviews are published as soon as possible after the figures are confirmed at the beginning of the following month. The exception is the figures for January which are included in the financial statements release, and July figures, included in the half-year report. 

The figures are unaudited.

Quarterly development

Group	Q1/20211	Q2/2021	Q3/2021	Q4/20213
Net sales, MEUR	25.2	26.4	21.6	31.2
EBITA, MEUR, adjusted	3.5	3.4	2.7	-
EBITA %, adjusted	13.9%	13.0%	12.5%	-
Group	Q1/2020	Q2/2020	Q3/20202	Q4/2020
Net sales, MEUR	18.8	18.6	16.3	24.3
EBITA, MEUR, adjusted	3.2	2.5	1.9	3.3
EBITA %, adjusted	16.8%	13.3%	11.5%	13.5%
Growth %	Q1/2021	Q2/2021	Q3/2021	Q4/20213
Net sales, growth %	34.1%	42.5%	32.7%	28.5%
EBITA, adjusted, growth %	10.7%	39.5%	44.3%	-

¹ CCEA Oy’s figures have been consolidated into those of the Gofore Group since 1 March 2021. 
2 Qentinel Finland Oy figures have been consolidated into those of the Gofore Group since 1 September 2020. 
3 Adjusted EBITA, adjusted EBITA % and adjusted EBITA growth % will be published in the 2021 financial statements release on 28 February 2022.

Month (2021)	Net sales, MEUR	Number of employees at end of period	Number of working days in Finland	Overall capacity, FTE1	Subcontracting, FTE2
December	9.7 (7.1)	852	21 (21)	789	137
November	11.3 (8.5)	846	22 (21)	784	152
October	10.2 (8.7)	827	21 (22)	763	133
September	10.4 (8.3)	814	22 (22)	757	119
August	8.5 (5.6)	803	22 (21)	746	105
July	2.7 (2.4)	797	22 (23)	746	38
June	9.1 (6.1)	803	21 (21)	755	108
May	8.8 (6.0)	799	20 (19)	755	109
April	8.5 (6.4)	791	20 (20)	743	112
March	9.7 (6.8)	790	23 (22)	735	118
February	8.1 (5.9)	736	20 (20)	689	111
January	7.5 (6.1)	727	19 (21)	679	109

Unless otherwise stated, the comparison figures in brackets refer to the corresponding period of the previous year. CCEA Oy’s figures have been consolidated with those of the Gofore Group since 1 March 2021.

¹ The overall capacity, FTE (Full Time Equivalent) figure shows the overall capacity of the Group’s personnel, converted into a value corresponding to the number of full-time employees. The figure includes the entire personnel, regardless of their role. The figure is not affected by annual leave, time-off in lieu of overtime, sick leave or other short-term absences. Part-time agreements and other long-term deviations from normal working hours reduce the amount of overall capacity in comparison with the total number of employees. 
2 The subcontracting, FTE (Full Time Equivalent) figure shows the overall amount of subcontracting used in invoiced work, converted into a value corresponding to the number of full-time employees. 
 
Further enquiries: 
Mikael Nylund, CEO, Gofore Plc 
tel. +358 40 540 2280 
mikael.nylund@gofore.com

Gofore Plc is a digital transformation consultancy with over 980 impact-driven employees across Finland, Germany, Spain, and Estonia – top experts in our industry who are our company’s heart, brain, and hands. We use our holistic service offering – consulting, coding, design and verification – as tools to incite positive change. We care for our people, our customers, and the surrounding world. Our values guide our business: Gofore is a great workplace that thrives on customer success. In 2021, our net sales amounted to EUR 105 million. Gofore Plc’s share is listed on the Nasdaq Helsinki Ltd. in Finland. Get to know us better at www.gofore.com.