The booming out of home sector has delivered a 50 per cent profit jump for outdoor advertising company APN Outdoor. The company is anticipating a full year profit of just under $70m, which is almost a quarter higher than its already bullish forecast made in its prospectus late last year. The company’s share price surged 11.4 per cent on the news. APN Outdoor’s first half results released earlier also beat analysts expectations by some margin. The outdoor sector itself looks set to crack a $700m spend this year for the first time, with OMA figures showing a 17.4 per cent rise so far this year on what was itself a record year in 2014.

Surging profits: APN Outdoor

For October the sector is up even higher at 19.4 per cent from last year, following a record September which was up 23.1 per cent on last year. If the sector holds this pace it will crack $700m and be a quarter of the way to fulfilling OMA chief executive Charmaine Moldrich’s goal of adding $400m to hit $1bn by 2017. The runaway success of outdoor media has spurred numerous commercial printers to enter the sector, with Bright Print, SOS and CMYKhub as a trade service, while Blue Star has become  a major player over the past 18 months. The only fly in the ointment for outdoor printers is the supersonic rise of digital out-of-home, with APN Outdoor itself noting in the same announcement that it is on track to digitise 17 billboards.  

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