IRI 2001 Balance Sheet Progress

Information Resources Inc (IRI) has just posted full year trading results for 2001. The group has reported a net income, before restructuring and other items, of $5.8 million or $0.20 per share, an improvement of $5.4 million or $0.18 per share year-on-year.

IRI is an American provider of scanner-based business solutions to the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry worldwide. It supplies CPG manufacturers, retailers and brokers with information and analysis critical to their sales, marketing and supply chain operations.

These latest results, however, show an overall net trading loss for the company. When accounting for the impact of restructuring and other items totalling some $15.4 million, the year has resulted in a final loss of $3.9 million or $0.13 per share.

In terms of revenues, IRI has reported a combined figure of $555.9 million for 2001, a rise of 5% compared to last year. Revenues from the company's U.S. business increased 6% for the year, while international revenues were up 2% over 2000, a 6% increase in local currencies. Operating income before restructuring and other items was $13.2 million, or $9.7 million higher than prior year. The increase was primarily due to higher profitability from the company's U.S. business.

In assessing the company's performance over 2001, IRI has enjoyed a number of high points and successes. Its U.S. panel and analytics business grew by 17% in 2001 with increasing demand for services related to marketing spending efficiency, price promotion and elasticity studies in particular. Consequently, IRI continues to invest in this area, expanding its consumer panel by 10,000 households to give greater coverage of emerging channels, shopping habits and the smaller categories and brands.

The Mosaic InfoForce alliance with IRI has also thrived. This retail audit area of the business grew 11% in 2001, but achieved gains of 19% in the fourth quarter as clients looked for additional ways to improve their efficiency. IRI's joint venture with Mosaic InfoForce will continue to provide cost-efficient solutions for retail clients throughout 2002.

Web delivery is also proving to be a profitable sector. IRI's installed base of CPGNetwork sites increased by 33 clients in 2001, bringing the total number of clients taking delivery through the web to 120 in the U.S. and Europe. CPGNetwork provides web access to personalised consumer and market information for business.

IRI Chairman and CEO Joe Durrett commented, 'IRI made significant progress in 2001. Despite a difficult business environment, we grew revenues, contained cost, and significantly improved our bottom line. We also generated positive cash flow and ended the year with a much-improved balance sheet. Our U.S. business demonstrated consistent and improved performance throughout the year. In Europe, while total results were disappointing, we made excellent progress in the majority of our markets reporting profit and growth. Unfortunately, we had a very difficult year in Germany. Our transition from an audit to a scan-based system took longer and was more disruptive to our basic operation than we had planned. We believe this transition is now behind us.'

All articles 2006-22 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.

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