Commenting on micro-electronics manufacturer Psion Plc’s splendid maiden interim figures – pre-tax profits up 57% at UKP1.0m (see Company Results below) – chairman and managing director Dr David Potter revealed that production of the Organiser II hand-held computer will be stepped up at the company’s new, second, source, Timex Corp in Dundee; its original supplier, Radamec Ltd comtinues as its primary supplier. It was shifting 10,000 Organisers a month at the beginning of the year, upped that to 14,000 in March, and is now up to 20,000 a month with Timex on stream. Following the placing of 3.1m ordinary shares at 97p each in March this year (CI No 884) the company invested heavily in marketing in the US, which could provide as much as 15% to 20% of the total business this year. Despite increases in sales there, the US subsidiary returned modest losses which were blamed on the high level of marketing expenditure. In Europe Psion established a subsidiary in Frankfurt which will market and service its products throughout West Germany, and exports, running at 30% of the total when it went public, look like accounting for at least 35% and perhaps 40% by year-end, when the company looks likely to have shifted 150,000 Organisers in the 12 months. Yesterday it launched the Psion Printer II for the Organiser II, and a string of new products are in the works there is gossip of pocket or briefcase computers that will come much closer to industry standards, a solid state dictation machine – and more. The shares were unmoved at 165 pence, but those who got in at 97 pence in March have every reason to celebrate.
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