million on total turnover of £75 million, for the past financial year.
The Channel Island publishing, retail and technology firm, which was acquired by the UK Claverley Group in 2003, says it is benefiting from the expertise of the new parent company and has ‘settled down well’ to its new private company status.
In the publishing division, circulation ‘remains strong’ for Guiton’s two newspapers, the Jersey Evening Post and the Guernsey Press, with daily household penetration ‘the envy of the UK newspaper industry’.
A £4 million investment in state-of-the-art newspaper offices at Braye Road in Guernsey is due for completion later this year.
Guiton’s retail and wholesale business, CI Newsagents, now operates 40 shops in Jersey, Guernsey, the Isle of Man and the Isle of Wight, mainly convenience stores under the Spar brand.
Although last year was generally difficult for retailers and the annual results were ‘a little disappointing’, the company remains confident of improvement, given the importance of such stores in local communities.
Computer services company Itex reported an ‘excellent’ year, having established itself as the leading managed service and disaster recovery facility provider in the Channel Islands.
Significant investment has been made in a new facility adjacent to its Rue des Prés headquarters.
Guiton now employs 896 staff across the islands, a slight decrease over the previous year.
