Two years ago, Magnum Power Plc was predicting break-even by the end of the year, but the uninterruptable power supply maker is still not there. The Livingston, Scotland-based company first looked to break even at the end of 1995 (CI No 2,631), and then hoped to break even on a month by month basis last year (CI No 2,944). Instead, the company has seen increased losses in the first half of the year to November 30, up to 1.7m British pounds from 1.4m pounds last time, on revenue that was down 22% at 255,642 pounds. Chairman Brian McGhee said the figures were essentially in line with our budget, but he said an anticipated upswing in revenue at the end of this year is likely to be impacted by delays in or rescheduling of customers’ own product launches. As a result, he said, the upturn probably would not be seen until the first quarter of next year. The company has undergone several management changes, and part time managing director Alex Wilson has become full time from January 1, until it recruits a new managing director. Magnum raised 3.43m pounds net in a share placing in October (CI No 3,024), and will use the money to recruit more engineers, to help get its products to market quicker. McGhee says Magnum now has the finances to help it fully exploit its patented BI-UPS technology, which provides a built-in uninterruptable power supply for personal computers. The company has a new standard electronic point of sale product due to be launched in April and a new standard product for high-end file servers and work stations due in June. Magnum is making no further break-even predictions, but says it expects revenue to grow significantly this year and next as a result of corrective actions already taken, low cost manufacturing agreements, increased engineering resource and improvements in time to market. The company pays no dividend.
