HIGH-profile online travel firm Lastminute.com saw its business grow this year, but pre-tax losses still hit 11m, writes David Duffy.

The company, set up by Oxford University graduates Martha Lane Fox and Brent Hoberman, is not expected to go into profit for at least another two years.

But the firm said it showed increased sales and customers in the quarter ended March 31.

The total value of goods sold over its Internet website rose 68 per cent to 7.2m, against 4.3m in the previous quarter.

Gross profit on those sales was 707,000, against 409,000 in the quarter ended 31 December.

Both figures were comfortably ahead of analysts' estimates.

Another encouraging figure for the company was a 128 per cent increase in customers to 65,387.

It now has 1.4m subscribers and more than 2,400 sources of inventory.

Much of this increase followed a high-profile marketing campaign launched prior to the company's March flotation on the London Stock Exchange, which has helped make Lastminute one of the best recognised brands on the web.

Lastminute reported that it spent 4.8m on marketing in the second quarter.

Lastminute's March flotation took place in a blaze of publicity and it saw a healthy premium on its opening day.

Since then, however, concerns about the company's performance and the general run on Internet stocks has seen its share price fall well below its 380p issue price. Last night it closed at 232p.