The Sunday TImes, 23rd October 2011, Dominic O’Connell
Look into that cupboard under the stairs, or on that shelf by the telephone, and you may find a copy of the Yellow Pages — an instantly recognisable directory, but one you probably haven’t opened in a while. The yellow book is part of an intriguing corporate story, and what might be a stunning turnaround.
Yell, which used the British book as a springboard to an international directories empire, was once a stock market darling. Its shares traded at close to 600p only four years ago. They closed on Friday at 3½p. Thanks to a crippling debt burden and the rise of Google, nobody gives Yell much of a chance. It is the most shorted stock on the main London market.
Under chairman Bob Wigley and chief executive Mike Pocock, however, Yell is attempting an ambitious renaissance.
It wants to marry its deep knowledge of local businesses to e-commerce, and create local online marketplaces.
Want to know if your high street has that pair of shoes you wanted, in your size, and in stock? Look at Yell — though Pocock wants to ditch the name to break with the past — and you will find prices, inventory and the chance to pay online. It’s a clever idea, and Yell has been able to attract the likes of Microsoft as partners.
The first local sites should be up and running by December, and the full version should be ready in 18 months. Which is probably, analysts reckon, about as much time as Yell has to prove to its lenders and shareholders that it has a future. If Wigley and Pocock can carry it off, it will be one of the great Lazarus acts of British business — and make all those shorting the stock look foolish.
