10th Jun 2014 12:10
LONDON (Alliance News) - Dewhurst PLC Tuesday reported higher profits and revenues for the first half of its financial year, driven by a strong trading performance from its lift business and a stabilisation in sales within its transport and keypad divisions.
The company, which supplies components to the lift, keypad and rail industries, said it had a much better first half than the previous year, reporting a pretax profit of GBP2.1 million for the six months ended March 31, up 38% on the GBP1.5 million profit it reported a year earlier.
Revenues rose 7% to GBP23.0 million, from GBP21.6 million. It said that the strength of sterling against the Australian and Canadian dollar reduced sales by a little over GBP1 million in the period.
The company increases its interim dividend to 2.80 pence, from 2.34 pence.
Dewhurst said revenue growth was driven by a 10% sales increase in its lift division, a full half year of sales from Dual Engraving, and strong UK lift controller and monitoring sales. It said sales at its transport and keypad divisions stabilised in the period, following declines last year.
The company said it faced difficult trading conditions in some east coast areas of Australia, while the UK lift market has also slowed.
"After a busy Spring, some of the steam seems to have gone out of the UK lift market, with some renewed reluctance to commit to significant projects. So although the second half has started reasonably positively, we are expecting a quieter period over the summer, albeit not as quiet as last year," the company said in a statement.
"In Australia, although the mining boom is over, there is still a backlog of planned infrastructure spending and development in Western Australia," it added.
The company said the market for highways products is continuing to recover slowly and demand has also been bolstered by new products.
Dewhurst said that overseas, its North America business continues to be buoyant, although it is facing strong competition.
The company said it continues to invest in expanding its range of escalator products and services to help offset any overall market stagnation.
Dewhurst shares were up 1% at 487.49 pence per share Tuesday early afternoon.
By Rowena Harris-Doughty; [email protected]; @rharrisdoughty
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