Publisher Haymarket has reported an 8.7% increase in operating profit for the 2015 financial year.

For the financial year to the end of June 2015, Haymarket saw an increase in operating profit of 8.7% to £5.03M.

Despite this, revenue for the same period is down to £184.3M from £187M year on year.

Haymarket currently owns over 70 media brands, including: FourFourTwo, What Car?, Finance Asia, Management Today, PRWeek, Campaign, Stuff, Pistonheads, and MyCME.

“Our group is well-placed to seize expansion opportunities in the media industry following an encouraging operational performance in the last financial year. We have significantly strengthened our balance sheet since the year-end, with the sale of our Teddington site, enabling Haymarket to continue its digital transformation in our core markets.” said chairman, Lord Heseltine.

Kevin Costello, chief executive, said: “We have focused on segments where Haymarket has established expertise, whilst rationalising non-core parts of the portfolio and maintaining financial discipline across the business. We can continue to execute on the Group Growth Plan – identifying geographic and market segments that promise healthy returns – from a position of underlying strength.

“Although we have not been immune to the volatile advertising climate we have been able to weather the storm through investment and focus in our top performing segments.  We also continued to shift our portfolio away from print in favour of digital and our festivals, conferences and exhibitions businesses.”