THE new boss of York-based CPP said it produced “a solid underlying performance” in the first half of the year despite drops in revenue and operating profit.

Announcing its results for the six months to June 30, CPP said its revenue was £35.4 million, compared with £38.9 million in the same period last year.

It said its operating profit was £2.6m compared with £20.5m in 2015 - but the company said last year’s operating profit figure included “a net benefit of £18.6m from exceptional items”.

CPP said its “underlying operating profit from continuing operations” was £3.6m so far this year compared with £1.9m in the first half of 2015.

The nine per cent fall in revenue reflected “the natural decline in the UK renewal book” as new regulated sales remained restricted by a Voluntary Variation of Permissions, though this had been partly mitigated by significant growth in India.

Chief executive Jason Walsh, who was appointed in May after his predecessor was removed following a vote by shareholders, said: “CPP delivered a solid underlying performance in the first half of the year, which demonstrated the resilience of the core business.

“Since I was appointed chief executive in May we have been developing a strategic plan that will take this core strength and build on it and return the business to sustainable growth.

“We are actively developing new products and are very encouraged by the global potential for OwlDetect, our cybersecurity alert service, which we plan to launch next month.

“Looking ahead it is vital that we return CPP to revenue growth, which will be supported by new product development.

“For this reason we were very encouraged by the rise in customer numbers to 3.9 million during the first half of the year, although we believe that we are still only scratching the surface of the potential market for our services.

“Meanwhile we continue to address our cost base, to ensure that the group has the appropriate resources and tools to support its planned development.”

Mr Walsh said the four immediate priorities were new revenue and customer volume growth; investing in new product development, innovation and branding; designing an appropriate organisation structure with an appropriate IT platform and focused supporting resources; and promoting colleague engagement and development.

Describing the outlook for the group as ‘positive’, Mr Walsh said it was excited about the global potential for OwlDetect, a service due to be launched next month which alerts a customer if any of their personal confidential information is being used or traded on the so-called ‘dark web’.