Research Division Disappoints Chime

UK marcoms group Chime Communications has described the performance of its Research division - which includes Opinion Leader, Facts International, Ledbury and Naked Eye - as 'disappointing', with profits for the first ten months of the year below the same period in 2007.

The Group says poor performance in the sector - which represents 7% of its operating income - is partly due to market conditions and partly due to an investment in its new Caucus digital service, which will host online communities from which researchers will be able to conduct live online events to facilitate research.

For the first half of the year, the group's Research division reported operating profits down 39% to £460,000, while operating profit margin shrank from 20.6% to 11.3%.

However, the Group is confident that it is now in a position to grow market share in this sector in 2009.

On a brighter note, 12 of the Group's 15 PR businesses have achieved higher profits in the first ten months of this year, compared with the same period in 2007; and several of its Advertising and Marketing Services businesses have also fared well.

In a statement, the Group says it has continued to control costs carefully and remains well positioned to achieve expectations for the full year. Shares closed at 64.5 pence on Wednesday.

Web site: www.chime.plc.uk .

Chime's Opinion Leader was recently the centre of controversy when the Market Research Standards Board found the firm in breach of the MRS Code of Conduct for the part it played in a Whitehall consultation on nuclear energy. The company also lost its MD Paul Flatters in the summer, when he left to set up a forecasting firm called Trajectory Partnership.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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