Infoserve recruiting as it moves towards profit
ONLINE local search specialist Infoserve has revealed that it is breaking even on a monthly basis and is looking to recruit up to 50 new sales people in the New Year when it finalises a funding package with major shareholder David Hood.
The Leeds-based business, run by Mr Hood’s ex-Pace colleague Steve Barnes, saw EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) of £69,000 in the six months to September 30 on turnover of £2.95m – up 12%
The group made a pre-tax loss of £200,000 compared to losses of £410,000 for the same period last year and Mr Barnes said results for the second half will reflect its higher rate of sales.
Infoserve provides UK businesses, mainly SMEs, with online marketing products through a partnership with Yahoo! and Google AdWords campaigns that allow them to be found when consumers are searching on the internet for goods and services.
The group had a net cash balance of £188,000 at the half year but is confident that it will finalise its new £800,000 loan package from Pace founder Mr Hood which will also see £2m of further loans converted into shares to up his stake from 47% to 83%.
Chairman James Newman, said: “The first half of 2009, whilst operationally challenging, was encouraging as we saw the continued benefits of our overhead reduction programme and increases in revenues and gross margin combine to produce a dramatic improvement in our financial performance.”
Chief executive Mr Barnes, added: “The second half has started well and we remain confident that the second half results will reflect continued higher average daily sales and cost control.
“As I said last year, ‘Although the overall economic climate is very difficult, we believe that local paid-for search will continue to grow and will fuel the ongoing market share increase of online advertising versus traditional media’.
“The IAB recently announced that internet advertising had exceeded even TV advertising; SMEs now know they need to market themselves online and are increasingly open to online advertising across our various value for money platforms.”
