Tetra Ltd has vastly improved profitability by concentrating on its core businesses, following two years of restructuring. For the year ended May 31, pre-tax profits doubled to UKP1.6m this time from UKP815,000 last time, when it took UKP1.2m in restructuring costs. However, turnover fell 13.1% to UKP12.2m, due to the impact of discontinued operations. Cash balances stood at UKP2.1m, and the Maidenhead, Berkshire company boasts no borrowings. Research and development expenditure fell by UKP600,000 this year to UKP2.6m because of savings made from the consolidation of its activities. Tetra develops and supplies business, accounting and manufacturing applications for Unix mid-range systems and MS-DOS personal computers. It no longer sells hardware and third party software because of poor margins, but claims to have between 40% and 60% of the Unix business software market in the UK. Tetra is confident that the release of its Chameleon 2000 product (CI No 2,008) will improve this share still further; both in the UK, where most of its revenue is generated, and in continental Europe, where a distribution network is now in place.
