Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire-based systems integrator and value added reseller Compel Group Plc’s decision to concentrate on blue chip UK-based customers has paid off as its maiden results show: turnover rose 28.4% to ú70.0m and pre-tax profits were up 30.1% to ú2.7m. It has also strengthened its liquidity by achieving a strong cash inflow; 5.1% of turnover compared with last year’s 2.7%. And it has reduced long term borrowing to 37% of shareholders’ funds compared to 325% last year, something quite important as a fair share of the money raised by the company’s flotation last year (CI No 2,501) went towards paying off debts. All of which the markets liked and the company’s share price rose fivepence to 150 pence yesterday on news of the results. Compel’s good figures reflect, partly, the growth in its chosen market – large UK corporations with networked personal computers, workstations and/or Unix systems. It said that increased spending on information technology and the move to client-server and network architecture had put more business its way and that customers liked the company because it acted as a single-source supplier for them, offering integrated products. It said it will continue to work only for major end-users and only in its field of expertise. During the year it bought the corporate customer business of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire-based systems integrator Metorcom Ltd, for ú893,000, most of which related to its stocks. Compel said it bought Metrocom as a way of developing relationships with certain unnamed corporate customers and expanding its business with a customer, again unnamed, to which Compel was already a joint supplier. For the next 12 months, Compel plans to improve its own information technology and move to new premises in the same town. A final dividend of 2.87 pence will be paid next month.
