brightsolid reports significant growth as it continues expansion
- Turnover of Group up by 75% compared to previous year
- Gross profits of 47%, up by 8%
- Successful start to current financial year with significant wins for online publishing and the British Newspaper Archive project going live
brightsolid is focused on two core growth areas: providing secure business services through its online technology division, and its online publishing division that comprises internet-based genealogy through findmypast.co.uk, genesreunited.co.uk and scotlandspeople.gov.uk, and social media services through friendsreunited.co.uk.
The Group has seen significant growth in recent years and this trend has continued throughout the last financial year, seeing revenues jump to £28.4m from £16.2m previously and gross profit increasing to £13.5m from £6.3m. This incorporates not only organic growth but also the first full year of trading for the Friends Reunited Group, purchased by brightsolid on 25th March 2010. Operating profits rose to £1.3m (equal to a 5% operating profit margin) which includes goodwill amortization of £3.2m as a result of the purchase of the Friends Reunited Group.
Chris van der Kuyl, CEO brightsolid, commented: “It’s been a great year for brightsolid, with growth across all our business areas and we have invested real time and effort integrating the Friends Reunited Group into the business. The acquisition of this Group has taken brightsolid into new areas by adding a social network to our portfolio, and strengthening our genealogy offering with the addition of genesreunited.co.uk. We also announced our digitisation partnership with the British Library that launched in November and is transforming the way people use historic newspapers to research the past.
“Our online technology business has also continued to expand and we invested in a second data centre, which will double our capacity. We will not be resting on our laurels, with the new financial year approaching we will be making some significant business announcements as we continue to build Friends Reunited and our other brands.”
brightsolid online publishing operates a portfolio of innovative online businesses, connecting people and places. It continues to grow on its success including the launch of birth, parish (including Manchester, Devon and Plymouth) and PoW records on findmypast.co.uk; and in September 2010, scotlandspeople.gov.uk re-launched, allowing searching and geographical mapping of results. Findmypast.co.uk also partnered with UKTV to produce its biggest ever advertiser-funded programme, a 10-part series called Find My Past, which is broadcast on its Yesterday channel. Furthermore, genesreunited.co.uk added the 1911 census records to its site for the first time.
The partnership announced with the British Library to digitise 40 million pages over the next 10 years is revolutionising the way that people research their personal and local history. During this period systems were put in place to commence scanning the 18th and 19th century newspapers, up to 4 million pages have now launched through the website www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk. It currently features more than 200 newspapers from every part of the UK and Ireland.
Within the current financial year, findmypast.ie was launched, with over 5 million Irish family history records available, findmypast.com.au launched with over 55 million records covering Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islands and National Records of Scotland (previously the General Register Office for Scotland) released the long-awaited 1911 Census records for Scotland on brightsolid operated ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk.
brightsolid online technology specialises in the cloud delivery of business critical applications helping companies increase their agility and reduce the risk of their IT solutions. Some of the UK’s leading organisations, including FTSE 100 companies, run their internal and customer facing applications on brightsolid’s UK-based private and hybrid clouds. These offer unmatched reliability, the highest levels of security and outstanding cost performance. The year saw the announcement of plans to double data centre capacity with the opening of a new facility in Dundee, in partnership with IBM, and the secure hosting and delivery of Scotland’s 2011 Census. New customers during the year included a FTSE 100 financial services company hosting its entire cloud services with brightsolid, and the provision of secure email for organisations including the University of St Andrews.
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Katie Hayward
Lansons Communications
Direct dial: 0207 294 3631
Mobile: 07809 441803
Carolynne Bull-Edwards
brightsolid
Mobile: 07932723866
