Rochester, Kent-based Telspec Plc, which floated on the London International Stock Exchange in December 1993, has announced its interim results for the six months ended June 30 and it says that its orders are up 12.3% to UKP27.4m. Commenting on the results, which showed pre-tax profits of UKP2.2m, up by 29.7%, chairman Frank Hackett-Jones said that despite increasing competition the company’s international customer base was expanding rapidly. Telspec manufactures telecommunications equipment. It says the biggest increase in business has been in pair gain equipment although this is the most competitive area. Pair gain boxes enable telecommunications operators to supply more than one logical telephone line over a single physical connection. Some of the UKP20.2m raised in last year’s flotation has been used to fund the increased working capital requirements and additional plant and equipment required to support the increased activity. The growth of business has necessitated a rapid increase in the company’s manufacturing capabilities. The UK plant began two shift working in June and the Australian plant did the same in July. Telspec says, however, that based on current forecasts it will have to increase capacity. In the short term it plans to sub-contract but future plans are to invest in its own facility. It will ship the first part of Deutsche Bundespost Telekom’s UKP7m order this month and has just won an order of UKP400,000 in Argentina. Telspec has a joint venture in Slovakia with Tesla Stropkov that has been hit by a failure to find suitable local manufacturing facilities, but the first order has been shipped from the UK plant. Telspec intends to use Slovakia as its base to push into Eastern and Central Europe. When it floated it had planned a Turkish operation but those plans were put on ice after Turkey PTT was unable to place an order with it. Telspec has now won an order worth UKP2m and it will be going ahead with the formation of a marketing and manufacturing base. Turnover for the period was up 60.7% to UKP13.7m and profits after tax were up 34.15% to UKP1.75m. Telspec says it plans to recommend an interim net dividend of 1.2 pence a share on October 27.
