Infoserve reduces losses and plans to recruit
ONLINE search business Infoserve Group today said it was confident its improved performance would continue after revealing a fall in losses and growing sales.
The Leeds-based group founded by former Pace executives, saw pre-tax losses drop to £600,000 in the six months to the end of September from £1.95m for the same period the previous year while it made a gross profit of £790,000 during the period.
The Yeadon-based group’s search engines link consumers to local businesses – a growing area as people search for more services via the internet rather than paper-based directories like the Yellow Pages and through local newspaper advertisements.
Turnover during the period was up 18% to £2.65m while cost of sales was reduced by £490,000 as it improved productivity from its sales executives.
Chief executive Steve Barnes said that it plans to take on another 70 sales people next year.
The group has extended its loan facility from Pace founder David Hood by £250,000 and said it made record sales in October of £542,000, up £58,000 from September.
Chairman James Newman, said: “The first half of 2008, whilst operationally challenging, was encouraging as we saw the benefits of our overhead reduction programme and increases in revenues and gross margins combine to produce a dramatic improvement in our financial performance.”
Mr Barnes added: “The second half has started well and we remain confident that the second half results will reflect the cementing of our relationship with Yahoo! and the growing success of our Google AdWords Reseller programme.
“Although the overall economic climate is very difficult, we believe that local paid-for search will continue to grow and will fuel the market share increase of online advertising versus traditional media.”
