City briefs: Zoo on track with revenue hike; Weaker Sterling helps grow sales at chemical plc and Howden completes buyback scheme

ZOO DIGITAL, the Sheffield-based group, has seen revenues increased by 18% to $7.8m for the half year.

In July, the company announced it had narrowed its losses and started to bounce back from the impact of a major customer restructure.

Now the business has announced that client numbers have grown 29%.

Stuart Green, CEO of ZOO Digital, said: “The Board is pleased with the progress achieved in the period under review, and in particular with the addition of significant new clients and diversification of revenue sources.

“Our cloud technology enables content providers worldwide to meet increasing regulatory requirements for the delivery of online entertainment.

“We believe that ZOO has the opportunity to grow consistently and win significant market share in digital distribution and localisation – a large and expanding segment of the Media and Entertainment industry.”

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THIRD quarter sales at chemical company Croda International have risen 20.1% to £315.3m.

With over 95% of sales outside the UK, a favourable exchange rate has meant that the impact of weaker Sterling increasing sales by 17.6%.

It said that it expects to deliver profit expectations and continue to benefit from Sterling weakness.

Despite this, Croda said that demand remains subdued in a number of end markets.

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HOWDEN JOINERY has seen a solid performance for the second half of the year to date having opened 10 new depots, bringing the total to 639.

It said that as part of the £55m share buyback programme announced on 23 February 2016, the Group has acquired 6.2m shares since July.

This brings the total acquired this year to 17.5m, for which the consideration was £80.0m.