Yell Group
Yell is a leading international directories business operating in the classified advertising market in the United Kingdom, the United States, Spain, Argentina, Chile and Peru.Yell puts buyers in touch with sellers through an integrated portfolio of simple to use, cost-effective advertising products available as printed, online and telephone media.
We aim to be the best business information bridge between buyers and sellers, regardless of channel, time or location. We seek to understand, anticipate and meet the changing demands of advertisers and users and to take advantage of new technologies and communication methods in the development of world class products and services.
- In the UK our products and services are the Yellow Pages and Business Pages printed directories, our Yell.com online advertising medium, and 118 24 7, our operator-assisted telephone information service
- In the US our products and services are our Yellowbook printed directories and the yellowbook.com online classified directory
- In Spain our products and services include Paginas Amarillas and PaginasAmarillas.es, and in Argentina, Chile and Peru, a range of similar printed and online directories. We also provide operator-assisted telephone directory services in Spain and Chile
- Yell Group products and services are delivered by a team of approximately 13,000 people - 4,000 in the UK, 7,700 in the US and 1,300 in our Yell Publicidad operation
- Group revenue for the year ended 31 March 2008 was £2,219 million and Group adjusted EBITDA was £736 million. For the full results see the Corporate & Financial announcements section
- From a single classified section in the Brighton telephone directory in 1966, we have grown the business to cover the whole of the UK. Since 1999 we have increased our operations significantly, principally through major acquisitions in the US, and more recently in Spain and Latin America. In August 1999 we purchased Yellow Book USA, the largest independent directory publisher in the US, for $665 million. In April 2002 we doubled our US footprint with the purchase of McLeodUSA Media Group for $600 million
- Following the acquisition of National Directory Company in December 2002 and Feist in March 2004 we expanded further through the acquisition, for $1.5 billion, of TransWestern in July 2005
- We have achieved strong and consistent revenue growth in the US over the last six years, both through organic (like-for-like) growth in existing markets and the launch of new directories, and through the acquisition of other directory companies
- In July 2006, we secured a majority ownership of Telefonica Publicidad e Informacion, S.A., since renamed as Yell Publicidad. Yell Publicidad has a leading position in the classified advertising markets in Spain, Argentina, Chile and Peru
- Approximately 77% of our revenues in the 2008 financial year were derived from selling advertising in printed classified directories, principally to small and medium-sized enterprises.
