Centaur reports revenue boost as advertising bounces back

A resurgence in advertising – both in print and online – has helped business-to-business publisher Centaur Media to a 15 per cent increase in revenue.

The group, which owns brands including Design Week, the Lawyer and Marketing Week, said it was confident that the upward trend would continue in the second half of its financial year, up to the end of June.

Announcing its half-year results this morning, covering the last six months of 2010, the publisher reported revenues of £27.5 million – up from £23.9 million in the same period in 2009.

Increased investment online led to digital advertising growth of 29 per cent to £8 million - almost a third of the group's total advertising revenue.

Print advertising also rose by 14 per cent to £13.7 million while income from events grew by 15 per cent year on year to £5.5 million.

The group reported a like-for-like pre-tax loss of £0.5 million, an improvement on the £1.2 million this time last year.

Staff numbers fell by six per cent year on year and the company spent £400,000 on redundancy payouts. The board will pay out £980,000 in dividends to shareholders in April.

Centaur said it was "confident that the steady recovery in our markets will continue" and trading in the second half of the year would be in line with expectations.

Chief executive Geoff Wilmot said in today's earnings release: "This is an excellent performance in the first half of our financial year  with growth returning as our markets recover and the group benefitting from the strong foundations secured in the past two years."

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