LONDON (Alliance News) - Zytronic PLC Tuesday said pretax profit rose in the first half of its financial year, as it benefited from rising demand for its touchscreen products and market penetration increased in the ATM and vending machine sectors.
The manufacturer of touch sensors reported growth in pretax profit of 15% to GBP1.6 million in the six months to March 31, from GBP1.4 million in the same period the year before, as revenue rose to GBP10 million from GBP8.8 million, boosted by increased demand for its products.
It said that it has continued to see increased market penetration and growth in its largest market sectors of ATM and vending machines.
Zytronic added that a mixture of production efficiencies, capital expenditure projects from last year, revenue growth and focus on products with its proprietary technology such as larger format and multi-touch sensors, contributed to a 40% rise in gross margin, up from 34% the year before.
However, the company noted that gross margin improvement was partially offset by an an increase in administration overheads, of which GBP0.4 million arose from adverse currency movements.
Zytronic will pay an interim dividend of 3.14 pence, a 10% increase on the 2.85p paid a year earlier.
"We are continuing to benefit from an improvement in current trading and on this basis expect to make further progress for the remainder of this year," Chairman Tudor Davies said in a statement.
Shares in Zytronic were trading down 3.2% at 289.00 pence Tuesday morning.
By Karolina Kaminska; karolinakaminska@alliancenews.com @KarolinaAllNews
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Zytronic (ZYT)