Walton-on-Thames, Surrey-based Kewill Systems Plc, the computer integrated manufacturing group, has reported a 34.5% increase in pre-tax profits to UKP1.5m for the half year to September 30, on turnover that doubled to UKP16m. Says Kevin Overstall, the group chairman, the two overseas acquisitions this year, Germany’s HAN Dataport, and Micro MRP of the US – particularly the former have offset the effects of the economic downturn in the UK. HAN Dataport, now the largest part of Kewill Systems, was mainly responsible for the 97% sales increase. Total UK sales were down 11%, Pick-popper Trifid Software being the main culprit, with turnover down 50%. Says Overstall, new manufacturing systems business in the UK, especially on the higher priced systems offered by Trifid, has inevitably been hard to find in the first six months as Kewill anticipated at the last year end (CI No 1,457). None of the four letters of intent that were signed with Trifid last month (CI No 1,531) have been honoured. However, both Micross and Trifid are reported to have benefitted from high levels of core business from the user bases and a reduction in staff numbers has reduced operating costs – Trifid has seen a 50% headcount reduction. Kewill’s strategy for Trifid now is a more aggressive selling programme. In the US, Micro-Max is doing well, with an installed base of 3,000 sites now. The financial systems division is reported to have traded strongly and Omicron is set to move ahead following the launch of its new XIS product. The HAN Dataport CAD/CAM business has increased its distributor income notably in Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands. Sales to the Eastern Bloc have been restrained by foreign exchange restrictions. A representative office has been set up in Dresden and a new distributor established in Italy. Discussions are in progress to appoint distributors for France and Spain. And a Kewill-Dataport division has been formed to promote the CAD 400 product in the UK – the Unix-based system costs UKP30,000. Says Kewill, the next generation of this product should be ready for launch by the end of next year. Overstall says repayments of acquisition-related borrowings – group borrowings total UKP3.5m – are either on or ahead of schedule. Kewill Systems is looking towards changing its group structure next year, whereby for example sales and marketing will become a collective group function – Kewill wants to market itself as providing the complete solution: hardware, software, consultancy and so on, but feels that its various products are not being associated with one another at the moment, unlike its competitor Tetra which markets all its products under the Tetra name. Kewill is confident on trading for the second half.
