Although sales were up 1.2% for the first six months of the year, adjusted operating income was down 5.9% to €767.4m compared with the same period in 2012.

The first six months of 2013 saw both company segments – consumer experiences and consumer choices – achieved a sales increase with the former seeing a minor increase of 0.5% while the latter saw growth at 2.4%.

The six-month increases were helped by Q2 figures which saw adjusted operating income up by 15.7% in organic terms with sales of €380.6m.

The company said it remained confident that GfK would outperform the market research industry this year and be in a position to gain market shares with organic growth predicted to be up to 3% for 2013.

Matthias Hartmann, CEO of GfK SE, said: “As we expected, our sales and income were significantly up in the second quarter of 2013. In a difficult economic environment and during a major ongoing group transformation, this has brought us a big step closer to our aim of exceeding the 2012 figures.”