Online publishing and technology firm brightsolid yesterday said it expected further growth following a major investment in its state-of-the-art data storage centre.
The Dundee-based company a subsidiary of Courier publisher DC Thomson & Co Ltd said it had doubled capacity within its data facility and developed a number of strategic partnerships with leading tech firms IBM and Cisco.
The company yesterday published its annual results, showing a fall in turnover from £28.4 million in 2011 to £26.3min the 12 months to the end of March this year.
The firm made an operating loss for the period of £2.2m, down from a profit of £1.3m in the previous year, although underlying profits remained steady at around £5m.
The company also warned it expected profits in the short to medium term would continue to be impacted due to investment being made in new products and features and increased marketing spend.
The firm provides clients, which include a number of FTSE 100 companies, withthe secure IT framework to run their internal and customer-facing technology systems.
Chief executive Chris van der Kuyl said: “The group has devoted significant resources to establishing a presence in a number of strategically important international markets.
“The company is confident its brands within the genealogy market will continue to develop alongside its industry-leading online technology business, based in Scotland.”
The firm said it had made significant inroads into the US genealogy market during the year following the launch of two major websites.
In particular, it said its findmypast.com brand was now offering customers access to a huge database of historical American records and to the digital British Newspaper Archive.
The company also owns the Friends Reunited brand.
It said it saw major growth opportunities in the genealogy marketplace globally, with revenues in the sector predicted to grow from £1.46 billion this year to £2.7bn in 2018.
Mr Van der Kuyl added: “We aim to safeguard our history, and the newly repositioned Friends Reunited takes brightsolid a step closer to being the home of the world’s memories.”
business@thecourier.co.uk