One of those companies that is continually moving in and out of Computergram’s sphere of interest, Eurotherm International Plc yesterday announced pre-tax profits for the year ended October 31 up 11% to UKP17.6m on turnover 16% ahead at UKP149m. Earnings per share were up 12.5% to 26.4 pence, and in line with company policy to cover dividends by four times, total dividend payable increased 18.2% to 6.3 pence. Chairman Dr Jack Leonard stated that Eurotherm, which trades largely in the industrial controls field, had order books up 30% on last year, and was aiming to increase its international presence – exports currently account for about 69% of total business. Eurotherm are also establishing a sales office in Berlin, partly with the potentially lucrative East European market for industrial automation in mind. Its Variable Speed Drives arm, which produces modular products for industrial automation, achieved profitable growth of 30% to 40% with further growth of around 20% per annum expected, and will be moving into the UK networking market in the next few months with a 6Mbps real-time fibre-optic local area network product; a new digital drive is also to be introduced. Leonard remarked that the figures represented satisfactory progress towards achieving long-term objectives.
