LONDON (Alliance News) - Connection, monitoring and control products manufacturer Elektron Technology PLC on Monday said trading in its fourth quarter was in line with the rest of its financial year, on the back of "pleasing" sales for its higher-margin products.
In the year to end-January Elektron's revenue was slightly down at GBP43.5 million from GBP44.4 million the previous year. Of this, GBP22.0 million was produced in the second half.
Elektron said it "continues to be cautious in its outlook due to macro-economic conditions which are having some impact on demand". In particular, the company pointed to the continued erosion of sales in a number of its low-growth brands. However, it said this was increasingly being offset by sales of higher-margin products. Elektron splits its markets into three categories - high growth, static or lower growth, and declining.
The company said it will continue to invest substantially all of its operating cash flow into new product development, particularly its Checkit monitoring and process management technology, which is currently undergoing initial field trials.
"Our new product development activity in our targeted growth brands resulted in pleasing sales growth in these areas during the year. This, together with our continued focus on efficiency, has delivered improved performance from our businesses. Checkit is already generating significant opportunities and plans for pilot projects with a range of substantial users are at an advanced stage," said Chief Executive John Wilson.
Elektron shares were down 3.7% at 6.50 pence on Monday morning.
By Hannah Boland; hannahboland@alliancenews.com; @Hannaheboland
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