The new more conservative approach at Eurotherm International Plc, which has seen a string of closings and disposals of loss making activities, is bearing very satisfactory fruit at the control systems group, with first half pre-tax profits 15% ahead at UKP6.7m, and earnings per share putting on 21% at 10.09 pence. Not that the company has been eating the seed-corn – the period is characterised as one of considerable investment and start-up of new operations. Eurotherm has opened a new facility in Virginia for the automatic assembly of conventional and surface mount circuit boards for use in group products, and it is now on stream and will ultimately be able to offer a contract assembly service to outsiders. Marketing companies have been formed in South Korea, Spain, and, after the end of the period in question, Norway. Orders in hand at the core business are 24% ahead of the position this time last year. On the businesses that had been lacklustre, the company says that growth has resumed in process control, and there has been some improvement in temperature control.
