UK’s DOMINO PRINTING RECORD PROFITS IN 06

[Anonymous]

Domino Printing scores record sales, profits in 2006; eyes acquisitions
Domino
Printing Sciences plc , the ink jet and laser printing specialists, saw
record profits and sales in the year to end October 2006.Sales grew 9%
to £208.4m, while pre-tax profit was up 3% at £28.2m. Operating profit
before was actually up 11% but the Group took a one-off charge of £1.8m
reflecting costs for investigating an acquisition which it did not
complete.The results encouraged the Cambridge-based firm to boost its
dividend payout 20% to 8.21p a share.The stock market was impressed.
Domino’s share price gained over 5%, or 16,75p to 344.5p by mid
morning. The company is now valued at around £380m.The company said
highlights for the year had been 15% growth in continuous ink jet
printer volumes; strong performance from three further acquisitions
during the year, and: a £2.6m boost to R&D spending that would fuel
“a stream of new products in 2007 and beyond”.The company said the core
businesses performed well achieving significant increases in volumes in
competitive markets.In addition, Chairman Peter Byrom (pictured) said:
“We entered the current year with strong order books and considerable
interest in our wider range of products. The year has begun well and we
look to the future with confidence.”We continue to seek acquisitions
which will extend the range of products and services or enhance the
technologies of existing products.”During the year the Group completed
three acquisitions. Two of these extend the product ranges by offering
Print and Apply Label Machinery, and Thermal Transfer Overlay printers.
The third acquisition is of a company engaged in the integration of
Track and Trace systems.

Track and Trace
Domino
spent £1.4m internally building a business development team in Europe
and North America to focus on the emerging opportunity in Track and
Trace. Track and Trace refers to the increasing demands of
manufacturers to not only mark their products with time, date and other
information but also to locate and track those products as they move
through the supply chain.During 2006, revenues from this activity were
small but “we have developed a strong awareness of our capabilities
amongst major potential customers and we expect to see revenues
increasing during 2007 and beyond”, Mr Byrom said.He said the Silicon
Fen firm’s business mix was continuing to change when viewed
geographically. Its target industry sectors and customers are growing
strongly in Asia and Eastern Europe and are more stable, even starting
to decline slightly in some Western European countries and North
America.This trend was reflected in the results and he said it guides
investment decisions on additional sales and service personnel and new
products.”We expect this trend to continue during 2007 and beyond”, he
said.

[Author]

February 5, 2007 at 11:37 AM