Revenue was £31m, gross profit was up 6% to £19.6m and headline operating profit rose 16% to £3.7m.

Pharmaceutical work continued to be strong within the division, Cello said – accounting for 45% of sales, compared to 41% in the same period last year.

The division carried out new work for clients including Danone, Nestle, EA Games, Boots, Carlsberg, Heinz, Wrigleys China, Janssen Pharmaceuticals and Sony Ericsson. Cello said that it is focused on “developing larger relationships into global ones” where more advisory value added services could be provided to big clients.

Group-wide, revenue was up 2.3% to £62.9m, gross profit was up 1.9% to £30.5m but reported operating profit fell from £3m to £2.5m.

CEO Mark Scott (pictured) said: “Cello is benefiting from its focus on servicing the pharmaceutical sector, along with other high margin client sectors, on an international basis…The group has a powerful combination of online data gathering, advisory capability and the ability to help clients implement their global marketing strategies. This is a good basis for continued growth and we are confident that management expectations for 2011 will be met.”