We’re the UK’s best-qualified annual report copywriters
Let us help you tell your story
Your annual report is your once-a-year chance to tell your story to investors, and the other stakeholders who take an interest in your business. As expert annual report copywriters, we can help you make the most of it.
Our background in investor relations and accounting probably makes us the UK’s best-qualified annual report writers. That means we’re as comfortable crafting your messages as we are writing about your business model and balance sheet.
We can advise you on structuring your report so you get the flow of your story right – from defining your purpose, via your business model and strategy, to how you’re currently performing. We also make sure your content is properly connected – that it’s clear, for example, how your strategy supports your purpose, links to your business model, responds to the trends in your markets and relates to risk and KPIs.
We’re all too aware that that it’s hard to tell your story and fit in the mass of required disclosures. With this problem set to get worse, we can help you to think creatively about how you put your report together, so it’s an engaging and informative read that still meets your reporting obligations.
Case study: helping Impact Healthcare rethink its annual report
Keeping up with best practice and new regulations
Many of our clients want help with improving their existing content. Whether you need to upgrade critical parts of your annual report or just want to fine tune what you’re already doing, we have the knowledge and experience you need.
Our annual report consultancy is invaluable for many clients. This provides a granular and objective analysis of your most recent report – or specific sections that you know you want to improve – identifying the easy wins and the details that the very best reporters get right.
We also keep up with ever-changing regulations, so you can meet your obligations effectively. Recent years have seen a host of changes, particularly in the environmental, social and governance (ESG) areas, from the introduction of s172 statements to the Task Force on Climate Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), which companies are still working to implement fully. We’ve also supported European clients with their first reports under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). With new regulations and standards constantly coming down the track, staying current has never been more important.
Showing how governance adds value to your business
The quality of your corporate governance has become an important part of your investment case. We can help you bring the board’s work to life, so your report demonstrates how governance underpins strategy, promotes and protects your culture, takes account of stakeholder views and links to the requirements of s172. We’re also experienced at drafting statements for committee chairs, providing insight into the committee’s activities while avoiding boilerplate.
In the process, we’ll make sure you’re covering the disclosures required by the code you’re following. Most of our clients comply with the UK Corporate Governance Code but we also regularly work with companies who apply the QCA or AIC Codes.
A service that adapts to your needs
We take a pragmatic approach to supporting you and will take on as much (or as little) of your annual report project as you need.
Writing new content
At one end of the spectrum, we offer a full annual report writing service. This usually involves gathering the information we’ll need by interviewing your board members and other senior management. Knowing what questions to ask is the most important element in a smooth and successful process. Having completed more than 1,000 of these interviews to date, our experience enables us to draw out the messages you need to get across.
Editing your content
We also work with companies who write the first draft themselves but need help getting the report into shape. We therefore offer what we call a strategic editing service, during which we:
• thoroughly edit your content, so every section of the annual report reads as if it has the same author;
• critically assess each section, ensuring the text flows logically, highlighting any inconsistencies or areas that need further explanation, and removing any text that’s redundant, to keep your report as focused as possible;
• critically assess all the sections together, to check the whole annual report is internally consistent and that your messages are coming through clearly; and
• consider whether you’ve met the disclosure requirements in each area and flag any sections that need more work.
This service can be particularly useful for international companies. If your content providers have English as a second language, we’ll ensure the final text reads as if it were written by a native speaker.
A mix and match approach
The reality is that most projects combine several approaches. A typical annual report project for us involves:
• providing up-front advice on how to build on last year’s report, making further improvements and integrating new requirements;
• writing new content based on interviews, such as the Chair and CEO statements, operating reviews, financial reviews, ESG sections, case studies and reports from committee chairs;
• editing content written by your team, to ensure the style is consistent and it meets the disclosure requirements;
• repurposing content from last year, giving it a critical review and updating it where necessary; and
• repurposing content from other sources, such as customer case studies or new product descriptions.
Whatever your requirements, we’ll work with you to understand the exact scope of what you need.
Writing your first annual report
The first annual report after your IPO is a unique challenge. You’re not in the swing of corporate reporting and it’s likely your team lacks the experience to write an effective report.
We’ve helped numerous companies to overcome this hurdle. We bridge the gap between your prospectus and the annual report, making full use of the information you’ve already published and knowing exactly what questions to ask to build that out into an annual report.
Here are just some of the initial annual reports we’ve worked on (links open as PDFs):
Supporting AIM businesses
Our AIM clients often aspire to a Main Market listing as they grow, so we work with them to bring their reporting up to that standard ahead of time. This helps them to gain investor confidence and makes the step up to Main Market reporting much easier.
We also work with AIM companies who just want to produce a solid report, while taking advantage of AIM’s less-onerous reporting regime. Our job is to produce the report you want, so we’ll suggest additional content where it’s helpful for telling your story while keeping your report simple and streamlined.
Not listed? No problem
Most of our annual report clients are public companies. But we also work with private companies who want to explain their business to customers, partners, suppliers and staff, or who want to get going with reporting ahead of a stock market listing. We help you to find the right balance between disclosure and storytelling, to write an effective annual report that communicates just what you need it to.
Making your life easier
It’s a fact of life that you have to produce your most challenging and important document at your busiest time of year. That’s why our whole approach aims to make your life easier.
You can rely on us to take the stress off your shoulders and hit your deadlines, so the report is ready when you need to sign off. We also keep in close touch with your design agency, ensuring that the copy and design work together.
Clear, fixed-price quotations
It’s really important to us that you have certainty about costs before we start work. We’ll discuss the scope of your project and give you a fixed-price quotation based on what you tell us. We guarantee that the price won’t change unless you change the scope of the project.
Find out more
Learn about our process for creating your copy. Check out our frequently asked questions.
What our clients say about our annual report copywriting services
“Richard has worked with Radley Yeldar over the past two years writing and developing a consistent tone of voice for a large FTSE 100 utility company. His ability to work at c-suite level and write transparent, clearly defined copy has helped us on the journey to reaching best practice reporting. I would highly recommend Richard to other companies that are trying to tell a complex story, simply, with an appropriate tone of voice.”
“Richard is a consummate professional and a joy to work with. His experience as an in-house investor relations director means he has an unrivalled understanding of the issues inherent in our type of work. He is also very pragmatic and practical – a thoroughly nice guy who really knows his stuff!”