Watford, Hertfordshire-based Real Time Control Plc has staged a dramatic return back to profitability with pre-tax profit of UKP1.2m against a loss of UKP55,000 last time. Financial director Tony Wheeler attributes the change to a breakthrough in supplying the major retailers after the company has plugged away at the point of sale software market for a long time. In particular he sees the turning point as being the launch of IBM’s 4684 terminal a couple of years ago that took point of sale technology down to smaller stores and which was a good fit with Real Time’s software. Contracts won in the first half of the year such as those with Foster Brothers, Mothercare, Shoe Fayre and Augustus Barnet are ongoing, while the company has recently won a new contract with Olympus. The US point of sale subsidiary in Boston made a profit in the second half recovering the deficit it made at the beginning of the year, which, considering that the retail sector is performing badly in North East America, was a good result. However, Wheeler warned that it is easy to move from a small loss to a small profit and the company is watching to ensure that this subsidiary sustains its profitability. The manufacturing side of the business, Rotec which mainly produces keyboards – was hit by the recession, but the decision to move to high value, low volume specialist keyboards for the industrial sector has paid off as Rotec saw margins rise on a declining turnover. Real Time still has a strong cash reserve of UKP4m and the outlook for the current year is good, although Wheeler acknowledges that exceeding the 1991 figures is a tough target. Much depends on the economy and its effects on the retail sector that forms Real Time’s customer base.
