IRI First Quarter Results

US agency Information Resources Inc has reported results for the first quarter of 2003, ending March 31, showing net income of US$260,000 compared to a net loss of US$9.4 million in the year earlier period.

First quarter consolidated revenues of US$137.7 million were 3% higher than the first quarter of 2002. U.S.revenues of US$100.2 million were flat versus the prior year. While revenues from IRI's U.S. Retail Tracking business, which comprises about 70% of the U.S. business, were down 2% for the quarter versus prior year, the U.S. Panel and Analytics business continued to post strong growth, up 9% over the same period last year. International revenues of US$37.5 million were 13% higher in U.S. dollars than the first quarter of 2002, but 4% lower in local currencies. International revenue grew 2% in local currencies excluding IRI's German operation, which is showing signs of recovery after a difficult 2002.

'IRI made significant progress on a number of fronts during the first quarter. In U.S. Retail Tracking, where client renewals are an ongoing part of the business, we renewed a number of major contracts in the first quarter. At this point, eight of our ten largest clients are either under contract, or will be under contract shortly, through at least the end of 2005. In U.S. Panel and Analytics, the investments we made to enhance our household panel and to develop new marketing models are paying off as we realized 9% growth over last year. In Germany we saw a sequential quarter-on-quarter reduction in operating losses, while in the remainder of Europe we made a profit and realized significant improvement in operating margin from last year,' said Joe Durrett, Chairman and CEO.

'In the short term, however, business conditions remain challenging. IRI took steps in the second quarter to reduce North American headcount by a further 7%. This action was taken for two primary reasons: to free up resources to invest in areas that we believe represent future opportunity for IRI and to continue to size expenses to revenue to meet our full year financial goals,' Durrett said. The company will take a charge of approximately US$2.4 million in the second quarter and expects ongoing operating costs to be reduced by US$12 million annually as a result of these actions.

Durrett concluded 'Longer term, IRI is making progress developing several new business initiatives. This work will leverage the combination of our expertise in managing large databases with new proprietary data sources to enable us to provide a whole new level of value added insights. Also, during the quarter, IRI announced that it retained the investment banking firm William Blair & Company to assist in exploring strategic options that could enable IRI to accelerate both the growth of our Panel and Analytics business and our new business initiatives, as well as to enhance shareholder value.'

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.

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