Allan Leighton: Lastminute speeding towards breakeven

But Goldman Sacks analyst Phil Clark said: "They [the figures] came in ahead of what we were looking for on the revenue side."

Company chairman Allan Leighton, the former Asda head, said the site's purchase of French online retailer Degriftour had speeded progress to breakeven.

The takeover, which was completed last month, and Monday's results place the site "ahead of forecasts... helps reduce our risk profile and brings forward the time when we expect Lastminute.com to become cash-flow positive", Mr Leighton said.

Lastminute co-founder Martha Lane Fox told the BBC the site is on track to reach profitability by the end of 2002.

The retailer's shares, which reached a high of 555p on their flotation, recovered 6.5p on Monday to close at 78p.

Subscriber boom

The number of subscribers to Lastminute.com services increased nearly eightfold to 2.85 million over the 12 months.

More than �34m of flights, hotels and other items were booked through the site, which aims to offer impulse buyers bargains on products approaching their sell-by date, such as imminent flights.

Last year, the total value of goods bought was �2.65m.

While the firm was originally known for its offers on flights and holidays, non-travel items, such as jewellery, books and chocolates, now account for 43% of sales, Monday's statement said.

Foreign expansion

The retailer has signed 'm-commerce' deals with One2One and Bouygues Telecom to help ensure users of new-generation mobile phones can purchase through the site.

Lastminute.com, which services chiefly UK, French, German, Swedish and Australian customers, is set this week to launch in Spain, the Netherlands and Italy.

In October, readers of a UK newspaper voted Lastminute the worst travel website.

The site, which had earlier won a string of professional awards, has challenged the validity of the poll.