Chime Communications, the marketing services group run by Lord Bell, has delivered a 27.3% year-on-year increase in pre-tax profit for the first half of 2008 fuelled by its recession-resilient public relations operation.

The company, which owns ad agency VCCP and PR firms including Bell Pottinger and Harvard, recorded an 11.4% year-on-year boost in operating income to £54.5m in the first six months of 2008. Operating profits were up by 11.1% to £9.1m for the period.

Chime chairman Lord Bell, best known as Margaret Thatcher's favourite PR man in the 80s, said that the strong results were due to the company not being overly reliant on advertising income.

Public relations, Chime's largest division, accounts for 51% of operating income.

"The PR sector hasn't been affected by the downturn so far," he said, describing it as the "engine room" of Chime's operation. "People now believe they have to communicate all the time [regardless of economic conditions]."

Operating income in the PR division was up 15% to £27.7m in the first half, with operating profit up 17% year-on-year to £5.1m.

Bell added that the acquisition of sports sponsorship agency Fast Track last year, founded in 1998 by former Olympic athletes Alan Pascoe and Jon Ridgeon along with Olympic sailor Edward Leask, also fuelled first half revenue figures.

Advertising and marketing services, which include Fast Track, account for 42% of Chime's operating income.

However, if advertising is stripped out separately from marketing it accounts for just 15% of overall operating income.

Chime's advertising and marketing services division saw a massive 42% year-on-year increase in operating income to £22.7m, with operating profit up 58% to £3.8m, thanks to the Fast Track acquisition.

The research operation, which accounts for the remaining 7% of operating income, was the only blight on Chime's results.

Operating profits for the research business dropped 39% year-on-year in the first six months, with the division's operating profit margin shrinking from 20.6% in the first half of 2007 to 11.3% in 2008.

Chime said that "just over" 90% of annual revenue for the year from clients had already been committed, meaning the company "should make its full year numbers".

"Our businesses have started the second half of the year well and this, together with our continued emphasis on cost control, leaves us well placed to meet our expectations for the full year," Bell said. "It is widely predicted that economic growth will slow in 2009, but our strategy of diversified group of businesses will protect us."

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