Auto industry turmoil hits JD Power & Associates
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US-- Automotive market research specialist JD Power & Associates has seen a decline in first-quarter revenue amid turmoil in the car market.
Specific figures for the firm were not revealed by parent company McGraw-Hill, who reported a 5.7% drop in revenue to $207.1m in its Business-to-Business Group, which includes JD Power and magazines Aviation Week, BusinessWeek and Platts.
McGraw-Hill said: “A solid performance by Platts' news and pricing services for global energy markets was offset by declines at JD Power & Associates and decreases in advertising in the construction industry and at BusinessWeek.”
Car manufacturers have been cutting back on research spend as vehicle sales plummet in response to the credit crunch. This impacted on JD Power, which carries out surveys of customer satisfaction, product quality and buyer behaviour – but the firm's research extends beyond the auto industry into the electronics, finance, healthcare, telecom and insurance sectors.
Besides the auto-specific woes, McGraw-Hill said first quarter revenue and operating profit had also been affected by the conversion of a number of JD Power syndicated studies to the online Compass platform. “As a result,” the group said, “$4.7m of revenue and $2.3m of operating profit that would have been recognized in the first quarter were deferred and will be recognised ratably over the 12-month Compass service period.”
Author: Brian Tarran
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