British book wholesaler Bertram Group reported £53.5m and pre-tax profits of £500,000 in its second full quarter since it was bought by Britain's biggest newspaper and magazine wholesaler, Smiths News, for £8.6m last April, the Eastern Daily Press reported today.

Michael Neil, managing director of Bertrams - which supplies books to major retailers, schools, universities and libraries - was quoted as saying: "We expected and budgeted to break-even for the rump of the financial year . . . . but things came into place much faster than we'd expected."

Despite the health of the Bertram division, its newspaper parent felt the impact of the acquisition, Trading Markets reported yesterday. Smiths' underlying profit fell 6 percent to GBP30.5 million on revenues 7 percent higher at GBP1.33 billion in the year to August.

Its dividend is up from 6.7p to 6.8p a share. Bertrams' turnaround was especially challenging because it was a bankruptcy holding when purchased, the Financial Times reported yesterday. Mark Cashmore, Smiths News chief executive, was quoted as saying: "The challenges it faced were purely on the back of the Woolworths financial situation and the lack of working capital."