Zytronic's first half profit grows on strong touchscreen demand

Zytronic reported a 15% rise in pre-tax profit for the first half of this year, on the back of increased demand for it touchscreen products in the ATM and vending machine market.The specialist manufacturer of touch sensors said pre-tax profit rose 14.3% to £1.6m in the six months to 31 March,while revenue climbed 13.6% to £10mProduction efficiencies and recent capital expenditure, together with the increased revenue and focus on products with its proprietary technology such as the larger format and multi-touch sensors, combined to increase gross margins to 40% from 34% in 2014, said Zytronic.However, this improvement was partly offset by an increase in administration overheads, £0.4m of which arose from adverse currency movements."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," said group chairman Tudor Davies.The company will pay an interim dividend of 3.14 per share, up from 2.85p a year earlier.