Privately-held Tetra Ltd of Maidenhead, Berkshire is celebrating what looks to have been a very successful 1988 – except that it doesn’t give any indication of profits apart from saying that it was profitable. The Unix and mid-range systems software house records that turnover doubled to UKP15.3m last year, and that its international business was up 50% at UKP1.5m – before the order from Siemens AG, which was worth another UKP1.5m up-front after the books were closed on 1988. Tetra Business Systems Ltd, distributing Tetraplan and Chameleon accounting packages, saw sales up over 55%. Tamarisk – third party Unix and Xenix software continued to gain market share and increase profits in a highly competitive market. Powerscourt Ltd, the corporate sales arm of Tetra, added The Body Shop, Yellow Pages, Bull HN and Harris 3M to its roster of customers for systems founded on Chameleon, and value-added services such as consultancy, programming and project management. The group remains self financing and had cash at the bank of UKP700,000 as of November 30. It spent UKP1.5m on new product development during the year, the fruits of which will appear over the next two years. The 450 strong group will invest UKP3.2m in development this year. No word on whether Tetra has any plans to go public.
