Sanctuary vows to stand by 360[degrees] model: label bosses outline their plans for the indie's future.(Companies)

Few would argue that 2005 has been Sanctuary Group's annus horribilis.

But if anyone thought that founders Andy Taylor and Rod Smallwood were planning to pack up and give in now, they are very much mistaken.

As some analysts last week suggested the group needs to shed its 360 degree approach to survive its current troubles, executive chairman Taylor left little room for doubt.

"I still believe in the integrated music model, it is a strong model," he says. "We are committed to it, to an artist-facing business, which centres around working with the artist to exploit their work and develop their careers.

"We are the only ones doing it and are likely to continue being so for a while. It takes a lot of work and a lot of financing to get there."

Certainly, financing is at the heart of the problems which leave Sanctuary facing its fourth profit warning in a matter of months, after a year when the company has--to some--looked close to unravelling. By last Friday; the company's share price was sitting at less than 8p, the climax of a terrifying fall of around 80% since the start of the year.

But Taylor is nothing if not determined, insisting that the company's problems have come partly from perception rather than reality. "In simple terms, we started off with some problems, but not 'end-of-the-world' problems," he says, "in terms of slippage within the urban division and over expenditure on urban releases, as well as some American releases slipping and not performing.