Bath publisher Future on-track to meet expectations for full year

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Giles Gwinnett

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Bath-based Future plc, the publisher of specialist online and print magazines, said it was on-track to deliver on expectations for its full-year 2024.

In a statement updating on the six months to end-March, the firm told investors that there had been a return to organic revenue growth in the previous (second) quarter.

This was fuelled by a strong performance from the comparison website Go.Compare, which the firm owns, as well as "good growth in B2B" and a "resilient" performance in magazines but offset by a "more challenging performance in affiliate products and digital advertising", it said.

Future, which owns brands including Country Life, The Week, Digital Camera and Yachting World, said website users' broad stabilisation had continued in the second quarter but remained in year-on-year decline. The company is highly cash generative and cash conversion in the half was strong, it added.

A reorganisation to accelerate the group's Growth Acceleration Strategy (GAS) was announced in February this year, the firm noted, with the creation of three business units to enhance its offer - B2C, Go.Compare and B2B.

The reorganisation will make Future "more agile and less complex" enabling faster execution of the strategy to deliver improved growth, the company said.

Future will announce its half-year results on May 16.

Giles Gwinnett

Giles Gwinnett is a writer at The Business Magazine. He has been a journalist for more than 20 years and covered a vast array of topics at a range of media settings - in print and online. After his NCTJ newspaper training, he became a reporter in Hampshire before moving to a news agency in Gloucestershire. In recent years, he has been covering the financial markets along with company news for an investor-focused web portal. His many interests include politics, energy and the environment. He lives in Dorset.