Ashford W. Meikle, Business Reporter

Oliver Clarke, chairman and managing director of the Gleaner Company, speaks at the newspaper's annual general meeting yesterday, at the company's Kingston headquarters. -Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer

Chairman and managing director of the Gleaner Company, Oliver Clarke, has reassured shareholders that it is possible to turn around the fortunes of the United Kingdom overseas operations, which sustained losses of $140 million last year.

"We have done a lot in terms of reducing the cost of our operations [but] the losses in England are worrying," said Clarke at the newspaper company's annual general meeting Thursday,

"I think there is a reasonable chance we can turn around the operations."

The Gleaner's overseas business publications include the Voice, Young Voices, and Weekly Gleaner in the U.K., as well as the South Florida Extra and North America Weekly Gleaner in the United States and Canada.

profitable but limited

"The existing issue is we are not getting enough advertising and that has to do with perceptions about circulation. The Weekly Gleaner is profitable but limited," said Clarke.

He pointed to a number of initiatives that the company had implemented, including a new unit in Kingston to create the pages of the publication.

"It has allowed us to reduce the staff in the U.K. by about five people ... the cost of producing the pages here is much less than in the U.K."

Over the past six months the company has effected major restructuring in its overseas operations. Last December the Gleaner announced that it would liquidate the Voice Group Limited, an action which did not have any material effect on the company's accounts for its 2006 financial year.

In May, it also was announced that Vee Tee Aye (Media) Resources Limited, a U.K. subsidiary, would also be liquidated, from which the group anticipated a net increase of over $80 million to the company's reserves, to be captured in the second-quarter results for the 2007 financial year.

No time frame

But, Clarke could not give a time frame when the company's U.K. operations would be turned around.

"It's an ongoing assessment that the board is making," he said.

Overall, the Gleaner's revenue rose by 10 per cent, to $3.6 billion, while gross profit increased by six per cent to $1.5 billion in 2006.

With employee benefit asset of $310 million, operating revenue went up by 24 per cent, to almost $2 billion. Net profit increased by 37 per cent to $256 million.

Said Clarke in response to a shareholder's comment that the company should grow its profit from its core operations: "There are two priorities in that area: we have to resolve the issues in England and drive revenue in Jamaica."

ashford.meikle@gleanerjm.com