Infoserve in jobs boost at Darlington site
E-MARKETING specialist Infoserve is looking to recruit up to 60 people at its Darlington site by February after a surge in sales propelled it into the black.
In the six months to September 30, the Leeds-based firm, which employs around 150 at Morton Palms, saw sales increase 18% to £3.06m and gross profits rise 40% to £1.1m.
The AIM-listed company said it had delivered a small EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) profit following a £377,000 loss in the six months to September 2008.
Chief executive Steve Barnes said sales had been boosted by the popularity of online advertising, which grew by 17% last year, according to the World Advertising Research Centre and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
However, Infoserve remains under-capitalised, meaning it is unlikely to be able to grow at the current rate without additional funding.
Attempts to raise £1m of extra funding for staff recruitment and product development have so far fallen flat.
But the company is continuing talks with major shareholder David Hood to fill the funding gap.
A source close to Infoserve said this morning he was “fairly confident” that an agreement with Mr Hood would be reached within weeks.
He also said the company was in advanced discussions with a media group over a possible joint venture.
Infoserve has around 3.5m companies listed on its business directories and is one of only a handful of companies in Europe to become an authorised Google AdWords reseller.
The company is also Yahoo! Local’s official UK online advertising partner.
The contracts with Yahoo! and Google - which represent more than 96% of the UK’s search and online advertising market - have allowed Infoserve to exploit the local search market.
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