The company behind the world’s largest half marathon celebrated its biggest ever Great North Run weekend, helping to boost turnover and profits, accounts show. Nova Marketing Ltd, which trades as The Great Run Company, is known for organising the globally famous run from Newcastle to South Shields, as well as a series of other events built around the half marathon, and other similar road races around the UK.
Record weekend and financial growth
Based at Tyne Bridge House in Gateshead, Nova Marketing has now published accounts for 2025 in which it hails its biggest and best Great North Run weekend, as well as success in its TV production division and Elite Athletics, through its joint venture Athletic Ventures. It has also taken a stake in a Blaydon trail events business during the year.
Turnover rose from £22.6m to £23.9m at the firm, which staged the Great North 10k in July, while operating profit also rose, from £2.96m to £3.55m. Pre-tax profits rose from £3.6m to £4.12m and total equity stood at £7.02m, up from £5.1m. In the accounts, directors said it saw strong year-on-year increases in attendances across all its events, for all ages.
Expansion into trail events
They said: “2025 saw the company deliver its biggest ever Great North Run weekend, with record finishers in the Great North 5k, the Great North Junior and Mini events and the Great North Run. We have continued to grow the footprint of the weekend establishing a fringe programme of events including lectures, podcasts and local corporate events.
“This growth has been reflected elsewhere across our portfolio of events with increased numbers of participants across all of the cities in which we operate across the UK.
“The success of events has not been restricted to road racing events, we have also seen increases in our trail events which are delivered as part of our Adventure Division. As part of our continued focus on trail events, the Great Run Company has taken a minority stake in Wild Deer Events Limited, a North East based trail event company with over 30 events, predominantly across the North of England.
“We look forward to working with the owners of Wild Deer over the coming years to grow the accessibility of trail running across the UK.”
TV production successes
It added how its subsidiary FilmNova’s live production portfolio continued to grow during the year, with eight international triathlon events delivered for the Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO), four live boxing events for Channel 5, and the start of a three-year contract to produce live coverage of the Women’s FA Cup for Channel 4.
It also delivered the UK’s Strongest Man when it returned to Channel 5 with two weekends of live programming, and it continued to deliver live coverage of the Great North Run and Great Manchester Run for the BBC as part of a new four-year agreement.
Other TV highlights included producing a major documentary charting ice skating legends Torvill and Dean’s final tour before their retirement. It also completed the first full year of a new three-season UEFA contract producing promotional content for its club competitions.
Outlook for 2026
Following the year end, it said 2026 has continued with strong sales across all events. It launched Run South London – a new half marathon which is a joint initiative with Merton Borough Council – and has also been busy delivering coverage of the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham this month.
Directors added: “The group has continued to invest in resource across both the Great Run Company and Filmnova reflecting the increased activity across the group in 2025 and 2026. The directors are confident that the group is sufficiently positioned to maximise the opportunities which exist in both mass participation and TV production.”
