Instem Plc, the Stone, Staffordshire-based control systems developer and manufacturer, has reversed the trend of the last two halves with turnover up 39.3% to ú11.2m. The move to project work just over a year ago had resulted in a dip in turnover, due to the fact that payment is made on completion of contracts, but as it has now begun delivery on some of these contracts this has boosted revenues. The increase is also a reflection of the record-breaking order book of ú22m it had at the end of 1994. Pre-tax profits have also benefitted, rising 14.3% to ú577,000. Chairman David Gare said, In many ways the first half has gone really quite well but we can always do better. He said orders had been slightly behind expectations, which were high in the first place given last year’s performance, mainly because of a tailing off of orders in the Information Systems division. Gare said that many companies in the sector into which this division sells its products had either delayed or cancelled the capital investment programmes in which Instem’s systems play a part. Gare said he had noticed that contracts were now bigger, but there tended to be fewer of them. However, the company’s Electronics Manufacturing business has been very busy and is ahead of its plans. On specific achievements, Instem has completed work on its substation control system development project and has delivered it to 30 sites of the UK’s national electrical network company, National Grid Co Plc. And in what the company believes will be the first in a series of orders, one of the UK’s electricity generators, National Power Plc, has bought an Advanced Process Management System for its West Burton, Staffordshire, power station. The electricity generator is upgrading a number of its stations and Instem is hopeful of picking up more business with it. The company added that it will be delivering the first production version of its Datatox F1 Laboratory Information System product, designed for pharmaceutical companies for testing the toxicity of foods and drugs, to a major multinational drug firm. And work on the Remote Management Unit for the water industry, which it has been developing with North West Water Ltd, is almost finished.
