LONDON (Alliance News) - Elektron Technology PLC on Thursday reported growth in profit in its last financial year but warned sales in the first half of the new year will be lower year-on-year faced by a tough comparative period.
The connection, monitoring and control products manufacturer said its pretax profit in the year ended January 31 grew to GBP0.8 million from GBP0.2 million the year before, despite revenue slipping to GBP43.3 million from GBP44.4 million.
Sales in the Connectivity division were flat at GBP25.8 million, but Instrumentation, Monitoring and Control sales fell to GBP17.3 million from GBP18.4 million due to declines in demand for some of Elektron's "more mature brands".
Sales in Elektron's newest division, Checkit, which provides monitoring and work management software products, also remained flat at GBP0.2 million. Elektron said it is going to keep investing in the brand going forward.
Profit, however, rose on the back of lower exceptional costs.
Elektron said it is currently performing in line with the board's expectations in the new financial year, with lower sales levels than the comparable period a year earlier which benefited from "a number of atypical" stocking orders resulting from the implementation of the final stage of its distributor consolidation strategy.
As a result, Elektron expects its trading performance, excluding Checkit, in the first half to be below last year despite an improved sales mix of higher margin product sales and further efficiency gains.
"We remain focused on key new product development programmes, in particular relating to the Checkit brand and where possible, realising value from our current portfolio. The board is confident that this strategy will deliver improved shareholder value in the longer term," Chief Executive John Wilson said in a statement.
Shares in Elektron were untraded on Thursday, last quoted at 6.38 pence.
By Karolina Kaminska; karolinakaminska@alliancenews.com @KarolinaAllNews
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