GWR Profits Drop 70% On Poor Advertising Market

Pre-tax profits at GWR Group fell by 70.2% during the six months to 30 September 2001 to £2.8 million, the company announced this morning.

The decline is clearly a result of the deteriorating advertising market that has hit virtually all media companies over recent months. GWR said that advertising revenues were down by 5.9%, but claimed that this is nevertheless an outperformance of the market which retracted by 9.4% over the same six month period.

National revenues were down 8% – a sharp fall of 15% in the first quarter was followed by recovery to year on year parity in the second quarter. Local revenues, which account for around 40% of GWR’s total turnover, remained resilient, down by just 3%.

Turnover rose by 6.3% to £62.4 million, mainly as a result of acquisitions; on a like for like basis this represents a 3.4% decrease in revenues overall. Total group operating profit was down from £12.2 million to £7.2 million. The underlying analogue radio business saw operating profit fall from £14.9 million to £8.8 million.

Ralph Bernard, executive chairman said: “It is a difficult market but ours is a robust business strongly supported by excellent assets. During the period we have recorded the best ever audiences for Classic FM and The Mix. We are focussing our resources on our core radio business with the objective of achieving increasing margins.”

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