Computer Output on Microfiche specialist Microgen Holdings Plc’s half year profits have shown a promising rise, and it looks as though it is over the setbacks caused by reorganising its memory division last year. The company has two areas of business, the memory division, which provides microfiche, CD-ROM and on-line storage, and its electronic printing division, providing volume printing and services. Chairman Douglas Lee said that the costly re-organisation, some ú500,000 spent on reducing the number of UK microfiche centres to nine from 15, was now beginning to pay off. This was reflected in interim pre-tax profits up 30% at ú2.9m on turnover up 20% to ú34.8m. The rationalisation of microfiche centres was in recognition of the decreasing market for fiche as a short-term storage medium. Microgen’s memory division now also provides both CD-ROM and on-line data retrieval. The company will store a customer’s data on computer, which the customer accesses on-line to Microgen as required. Lee said that CD-ROM provided an alternative to microfiche for storing regularly accessed data, but he believed microfiche would continue to be the best long-term storage medium. Lee was confident that revenues from the memory division would remain stable over the next few years, but he expected the mix to change in favour of CD-ROM and on-line data access. The company seems to be pinning its future hopes on its electronic printing division. In addition to a high volume print bureau-type operation, where customers send computer output for printing on Microgen’s 135 page per minute printers, the company offers several added-value services based around computer output. One example is what it calls sales-debtor logistics, which provides enhanced invoice and statement printing, address sorting attracting Post Office discounts, and an invoice re-print facility. Print division turnover for the half year is ú16.7m, just behind the memory division at ú18.1m, but Lee expects print to have overtaken memory by this time next year, and he said that Microgen would continue to develop new services for its print customers. He is also buoyant about the company’s 1994 acquisition of its German competitor Infokom GmbH (CI No 2,580) which he said is now contributing significantly to profits. The board is recommending an interim dividend of 2.3 pence, a rise of 5% on last year.
