Time recording and communications group Blick Plc is seeing solid, steady growth, and for the eleventh year in succession has recorded growth in both revenueand profit. Blick saw pre-tax profits rise by 8% to 15.3m British pounds on revenue up a little more than 2% to 63.9m pounds. The company owes its solid progress to the sort of on-going annual revenue many companies would envy. This time last year, some 60% of revenue was coming from annual payments from the rental and maintenance fees it collects with its security, door entry systems, pager systems, fire alarm systems and the like. This year, annual rental income was up 4%, although the company has seen some shift in the nature of the contracts towards shorter-term agreements. As a result, gross contracted rental at year end was down to 162m pounds, from 168m pounds last year. The company says all businesses have made good progress. In the UK, despite poorer fourth quarter trading, Blick says the time, communication and security businesses consolidated their markets and delivered useful profits and cash flow. TR Services in South Africa saw pre-tax profits up 97% to 335,000 pounds in spite of the recent depreciation of the Rand. French subsidiary Databip turned last year’s loss into a small profit. The company’s PAC International Ltd acquisition in January (CI No 2,842) turned in operating profits of 1.6m pounds in its first eight months. The purchase of Dutch distributor Teletechnicom Holding BV in May (CI No 2,922) was supposed to have been earnings-enhancing in the fiscal year, but the completion date was deferred to September 30, when the purchase price was reduced to 1.9m pounds. The company says its joint ventures with Amano Corp of Japan (CI No 2,946) will incur start-up costs, but should deliver growth over the next few years. The company will continue to grow both organically and through acquisition, says chairman Alan Elliot. Perhaps because its figures keep edging up in a steady but unremarkable fashion, Blick seems to make a point of reporting its fluctuating gearing, which this year rose to 97% due to the acquisitions, but which it hopes to reduce again by March next year. Blick is recommending a final dividend of 9.5 pence, making a total for the year up 8% at 14 pence.
