Specialist printer Wyndeham Press today said it had more than doubled profits, despite the ongoing slump in the advertising market.

The Hove-based company said pre-tax profits for the year to March 31 rose 106 per cent to £6.4 million from £3.1 million last time.

After a £1 million goodwill charge and a £700,000 exceptional profit on the disposal of Wyndeham's Riverside Packaging Printers unit last August, underlying pre-tax profits came in at about £6.1 million.

Wyndeham is one of the UK's leading printers of specialist magazines, commercial literature and direct mail. Titles printed by the company include What Car, Marie Claire, GQ and Construction News.

The group said its strong performance reflected the benefits of rationalisation and investment against a "continued tough trading environment".

Wyndeham said the printing industry continued to experience challenging conditions in the face of reduced magazine pagination.

This was due to the decline in advertising expenditure resulting from the economic downturn.

Chairman and chief executive Bryan Bedson said pagination had stabilised and most magazines, particularly the more prestigious ones, were proving resilient.

But Mr Bedson added: "The advertising industry does not currently foresee an upturn in advertising expenditure until 2004."

The company said it had won a number of new contracts following its reorganisation, which included the rebranding of its subsidiaries and the disposal of packaging print business Riverside and its Newbury site for £3.5 million.

It had also felt the benefits of investment in new printing technology, which had been at a level substantially above the industry average.

A spokesman said the group had also benefited from rationalisation in the 2001/02 financial year.

Tuesday June 17, 2003