Amstrad Plc is reaping the benefits of company restructuring in times of recession, and has reached the mid-term point with pre-tax profits up 33% at UKP40m. Turnover, however, was down 13% at UKP327m, but chairman Alan Sugar puts this down to Amstrad’s decision to sell off large volumes of Camcorders and video recorders at a loss to convert inventory into cash. Sales of Amstrad’s Generation 3 range of professional computers, launched in September (CI No 1,504), were below expectation but Sugar sees this as a reflection of the economic climate in the UK the company’s largest market – and is satisfied that the top-end machines have been well received by the European industry. Amstrad’s markets in Australia and France have also performed below budget, rendering the group’s January sales figures down on expectations. Germany is proving a strong market, contributing the group’s second highest sales figures. Sales of facsimile and satellite television dishes are compensating for the floundering computer markets, but Amstrad is keen to emphasise that it isn’t losing interest in computers – says Sugar, the company has the largest ever development programme in hand for this sector and plans to attack this market again in the aggressive legendary manner of marketing that only Amstrad knows how. So there. Look for a notebook computer soon. The chairman is keenly watching Europe’s reaction to the Gulf War and is focusing once again on the balance sheet, with an emphasis on liquidity. It reports a positive cash position at January 31 of UKP40m. Inventory levels at December 31 were 20% lower than a year ago.
