UK-based youth publisher LADbible will close its Australian business at the end of 2023, making around 100 Australian staff redundant across its Sydney and Melbourne offices, a source has told news.com.au.
The source, who declined to be named, said that the announcement was made to Australian staff on Sunday, September 12 by UK-based chief financial officer Tim Croston.
“He came in and just read off a piece of paper,” the source said, adding that they believed the local management team did not know the announcement was coming.
“All staff were made redundant but will work until the end of the year and will receive redundancy repayments.”
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According to its website, LADbible Australia, which launched in 2019, has a readership of around 10.8 million. It also operates SPORTbible Australia.
LADbible is part of LBG Media Group, a UK-based niche publisher, which listed on the London Stock Exchange’s AIM market in late 2021 with a valuation of £360 million (A$692 million).
The company was founded by Alexander ‘Solly’ Solomou and Arian Kalantari in 2012 in Manchester as a Facebook page while they were studying at university.
Mr Kalantari stepped down from the business in July this year, while Mr Solomou is its CEO.
The Group also includes titles such as SPORTbible, GAMINGbible, UNILAD, female-focused publisher Tyla, branded content agency Joyride and licensing arm CONTENTbible.
The source said the decision to shut its Australian business didn’t come as a surprise.
In October, LBG bought US business Betches Media, a digital publisher with a focus on millennial and Gen Z women, a move it said “significantly accelerates growth and presence in the key US market”, and it is understood the company has been increasingly focussed on its US business.
“I wasn’t overly surprised, despite the fact that [the Australian operations] were the only part of the business to turn a profit,” the source said.
They added that following the group’s disappointing financial performance in 2022, which saw its net profit after tax fall six per cent compared to the previous year, LADbible’s UK Christmas party was cancelled, and its Australian party delayed.
“LADbible APAC (Asia Pacific) staff were told we didn’t have to worry about redundancies and that our Christmas party would be rescheduled to February 2023,” the source added.
In its 2022 full year results presentation, the company described Australia as a “core international market” adding that: “the performance in Australia was particularly strong”.
But, the source said, alarm bells were sounded after a local HR staff member left the firm not long after being appointed, and the company “sent a mass email saying they had mucked up super payments”.
In the email, supplied to news.com.au, LADbible blamed the delay in paying super for the first three months of 2023 to its Australian staff on a technical error.
The email said all staff would “receive the owed amount plus interest”.
“I can also confirm that the system issue was fully resolved and Q2 super payments were processed without issue,” the email, sent in August, continued.
Its recently-announced half year results for 2023 show LBG Media Group made revenue of £27.2 million (A$52.3 million) for an operating loss of £1.3 million (A$2.5 million).
LADbible has been contacted for comment.
Know more about this story? | michelle.bowes@news.com.au
