Sales for the insight division were down 8% on the previous year to £28.2m. Revenue (which excludes third-party sales costs charged to clients) fell 7% to £16.7m. The division contributed 20% of group revenue, down from 22% the previous year. Headline profit before tax for the division (excluding non-recurring costs) was £4.5m, down from £5.3m.

Billings for the group as a whole were up 1% to £138.5m while revenue was up 4% to £83.8m.

Creston said that the solid performance from research businesses MSL and ICM had been offset by the underperformance of CML and MSTS, which have suffered amid the downturn because of the short-term project-based nature of their work. In the course of the year MSTS was integrated into MSL, at a cost of £78,000. The group’s online research offering, Newvista, grew by 16%.

Despite the decline in insight revenues, CEO Don Elgie said the division was well placed for the future, and that Creston’s weighting towards market research was helping to drive its “robust performance in a tough economic climate”.

• Creston also reports several new appointments at research agency ICM. Duncan Fergusson has joined as an associate director in the technology division, Leon Ward has been promoted to associate director, Neha Patel and Guy Smith have been promoted to project director and Annabel Hudson, Laurence Olding and Pete Psaila have been promoted to project manager.