Trinity Mirror’s revenues slump

Trinity Mirror’s preliminary results for the year ended 30 December 2012 show revenues fell by £54.2 million, blamed, in part, on the launch of the Sun Sunday in February 2012.

Despite the loss, operating profits for the group were still up 2.5% to £107.1 million.

The latest ABC results for the newspaper market (February 2013) show that the Daily Mirror has seen a 5.9% year-on-year drop in sales, while the Sunday Mirror has dropped -34.1%. However, the Sun Sunday has seen a larger decline of -40.5% over the last year, but still sold almost twice as many copies as the the Sunday Mirror last month.

“It has become clear to me in my first six months that not only is Trinity Mirror a strong and cash generative business, as evidenced by this past year’s financial performance, but that there is significant further unrealised potential,” said Simon Fox, Chief Executive, Trinity Mirror plc

“We will be investing £8 million during 2013 to deliver our strategic objectives whilst ensuring we repay maturing long-term debt over the next 15 months. Over this period our financial flexibility will improve such that we can both meet our pension funding obligations and consider the potential for returning capital to shareholders.

“Although the trading environment is expected to remain difficult, the strategic initiatives I have implemented will bring significant benefits with the ambition of delivering sustainable profit growth over the medium term.”