London-based MR-Data Management Group Plc, the data transcription and document image processor, has seen a fall of 33.6% in net profits to UKP1.8m for the six months ended December 31. Operating profit was UKP2.83m, down 6.3% on last time: this was blamed on on-going development costs at Memex, the software division, which curently sells primarily to the police market. It has, for example, provided a text retrieval system to the Sussex police, and the firm is confident of the growth potential of this business as demand for law enforcement and defence related systems is growing both in the UK and America. It is currently awaiting decisions on sales orders from both sides of the Atlantic. The firm has re-organised its business resulting in one-off costs, absorbed in the first half. The results of the Document Image Processing Division have been affected by structural changes. Total redundancy and re-organisation costs of UKP382,000 were incurred, but these should result in annualised savings of UKP710,000. Chairman John Redmond said that the company had had ‘too many sites and too and managers and the business didn’t warrant these expenditures.’ In February this year the firm acquired The Lasershop, a laser printing bureau based in Maidenhead from PCL Group Ltd. It had turnover of over UKP2m in the year ended September 30, 1993 and broadens the share of the laser printing bureau services market in the UK. MR Data plans to expand this area of its business further. MR Data’s current cash position is UKP9.57m and has increased from the prior year end position by UKP2.69m. There are no immediate plans to spend this, or for further acquisitions. The board is declaring a 20% increase in the interim dividend to 2.076p.
