LONDON, 1 November 2008 – Online gold exchange BullionVault posts year-end turnover figure of £236m (US$354m) – up from £41m in previous financial year.
AS THE U.K. SLIPS into recession, led by financial services, one London business is bucking the downward trend in dramatic fashion.
Annual accounts for BullionVault.com – posted today – show a business growing 475% amid the global economic downturn.
Based in Hammersmith and a member of the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA), BullionVault now looks after more than 11 tonnes of professional-grade gold bullion bars on behalf of private investors from 80 countries worldwide.
BullionVault’s online gold-trading platform enables private individuals to invest in the professional gold market directly. It is increasingly considered the most cost-effective, secure and liquid way to own gold bullion. Free from credit-default and leverage risks, customers buy and sell physical gold live online, holding it securely in their choice of London, New York and Zurich, Switzerland.
BullionVault now has more than 7,000 funded and active clients, with web traffic and new customer account-openings growing more than eight-fold on average in October from the same month last year.
The company attributes this year's rapid growth to a series of factors: the implementation of French, German and Italian-language versions of the site, organic growth driven by strong online marketing and word-of-mouth recommendations, plus the turbulent economic conditions worldwide, which have made investment in ‘safe haven’ gold an increasingly popular option.
BullionVault’s founder and director Paul Tustain believes the company’s lean business model puts it in a strong position to continue this year-on-year growth in 2009.
"This is a fixed-cost business which means our profit to turnover ratio grows as we grow – a rare advantage. Our staff numbers are the same today as when the business turned-over £41m last year."
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