Yell Group
Yell is a leading international directories business operating in the classified advertising market in the United Kingdom, the United States, Spain and Latin America.Yell creates value by putting 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. Yell seeks 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 include the Yellow Pages and Business Pages printed directories, our Yell.com online advertising medium, and Yellow Pages 118 24 7, the operator assisted phone-based directory information service
- In the US our products and services include 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 13,600 people - 4,000 in the UK, 8,100 in the US and 1,500 in our Yell Publicidad operation
- Group revenue for the year ended 31 March 2007 was £2.075 billion and Group adjusted EBITDA was £677.5 million. For the full results see the Corporate & Financial announcements section
- From a single classified directory in Brighton in 1966, we have grown the business to cover the whole of the UK. Since 1999 we have increased our operations significantly, principally through two 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
- Approximately 88% of our revenues in the 2007 financial year were derived from selling advertising in printed classified directories, principally to small and medium-sized enterprises
- In July 2006, we secured a majority ownership of Telefonica Publicidad e Informacion, S.A. (now called Yell Publicidad) and have a 94.25% stake. Yell Publicidad is the leading publisher of print and online directories in Spain, with leading positions in Argentina, Chile and Peru.
