Psion Plc, the company that floated in March 1988 at 97 pence a share and saw its shares rocket to 305 pence by August 1989 they now stand at a more circumspect 280 pence, has been reorganised and integrated into a tighter group structure. Chairman and chief executive Dr David Potter, says that the purpose of the new organisation is to provide smaller autonomous units with financial and management backing from group resources. With effect from the begining of this year, Psion UK Plc acquired the trading and production assets of Psion Plc. The latter will continue to have responsibility for technical, engineering, and software development, as well as group management and treasury functions. The Psion group now consists of Psion Plc, Psion UK Plc, Dacom Systems Ltd, acquired in December 1988 (CI No 1,081), Psion Inc, Psion GbmH, and Psion BV, established in September as a joint venture with two young entrepreneurs who own 50% of the company. When the company reported its half year results last September, turnover had jumped by 76% to UKP14.2m, and profit was up by 58% to UKP1.63m. 50% of that growth came from the Dacom acquisition, and commentators expressed concern that up to 40% of Dacom’s turnover is based on the uncertain business of supplying modems to manufacturers (CI No 1,255). Psion’s MC200, MC400, and MC600 mobile computers were launched in September last year (CI No 1,271), and started shipping in December. The company won’t reveal how many units have been sold so far, claiming that it is production-limited, and certainly not suffering from a lack of demand. It has appointed a number of retail distributors to address the high street market, including Dixons, Wilding Office Equipment, and John Lewis. Its industry distributors are P&P Micros, Frontline Distribution, and Parkfield Communications. Psion is now in the quiet period after its year-end and consequently won’t give a detailed breakdown of product and territorial sales. However, the company says that the unprofitable operation in Germany is growing in line with expectations, and stresses the strategic nature of the decision to establish a subsidiary there, rather than appoint distributors.
