MEDIA company Archant, publisher of The Evening Star, has announced a record operating profit for 2001 of £26.1m (up 8%) on turnover up 10.3% at £144m.

MEDIA company Archant, publisher of The Evening Star, has announced a record operating profit for 2001 of £26.1m (up 8%) on turnover up 10.3% at £144m.

The news comes after Archant were named as one of the UK's top 100 private companies for the third year in a row in the Sunday Times PricewaterhouseCoopers Profit Track 100.

Coming in at number 68, Archant was the highest-ranked newspaper and magazine publisher and the third highest ranked company in the Eastern region with an annual profit growth of 34% a year from £10.6m in 1997 to £25.1m in 2000.

Archant financial director Chris Lawrence said: "This is a great achievement and is testament to the talents and energy of people in our business. These record results have been achieved through organic growth and acquisition, and we intend to continue to pursue this growth strategy. Archant is in good health and we look forward to the future with confidence."

Archant, formerly known as Eastern Counties Newspapers Group, is a national media group involved in regional newspapers, contract and consumer magazines, contract print and electronic publishing.

It employs around 2500 people right across England and Scotland. It produces four daily regional newspapers and 58 weekly titles that have a combined circulation of 2.6 million copies every week. It also publishes 45 monthly magazines and around 40 websites.

WEB-LINK: www.archant.co.uk