Haymarket Profits Hit By Advertising Downturn

Haymarket, the magazine publisher owned by Lord Heseltine, has announced a loss of £7.2 million for 2001. While turnover was unchanged at £161 million, pre-tax profits slipped from £30.8 million in 2000 to £20.4 million last year.

The company cited the advertising recession as the primary reason for the decline, with the business-to-business sector suffering the heaviest losses. The collapse of the technology advertising market has been particularly pronounced and resulted in the closure of a number of titles.

Heseltine said that recruitment and advertising had fallen by 40% overall and there were “no grounds for improvement”. However, results for the first half of 2002 have been encouraging and having embarked on a rigid cost cutting programme, the group is anticipating full-year profits of around £23 million.

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