Domino Printing Sciences Plc seems to have put its technical difficulties behind it, but cost savings from lay-offs last year (CI No 2,801) were somewhat offset by increased supplier costs, leaving first half profit down on last year. Domino reported profits down 14% at 4m British pounds, on revenue that rose just 2% to 51.6m pounds. Chairman Gerald Dennis said in his statement the company had seen expected improvements in most of its markets, except the US, where it was difficult to repeat la st year’s successes (CI No 2,836). Overall, the company says sales of printers has increased by 20% across its UK, European and Asia-Pacific markets. It continues to spend 6% of revenue annually on research and development, and launched a number of new products in May, including enhanced continuous ink jet printers, a new large character printer and an enhanced version of its laser printer. It also says it has a number of new products which will be available in 1997. The company has seen changes at board level, with John Wood and Neil Falkner resigning, and the appointment of Peter Byrom in March as deputy chairman (CI No 2,879). Dennis said despite concerns about trading in the US, particularly related to high value printers for the com mercial printing market, the company had seen signs of increased activity in the rest of the world, and looks forward to similar growth in the second half of the year. Ever optimistic, the board declared an interim dividend up 8% at 4.0 pence.
