Adare Printing Group is looking for a stronger second half following the 3.6 per cent fall in pre-tax profit to £8.5 million (€10.8 million) in the six months ended October 31st, 1999. Sales rose to £91.4 million from £79.8 million.
Finance director Mr Peter Lynch said the group planned to invest a further £10 million sterling (€16 million) in digital image and data management acquisitions, and these would help growth. But these are not expected to be completed until after the end of this year to avoid any possible Y2K problems.
The company had the benefit of £2.7 million in sales from acquisitions, which contributed £198,000 to profits. Excluding this profit indicates a 16.5 per cent drop in the underlying operating profit.
Adare said the "monetary policy and strength of sterling weakened demand in the first quarter". Nevertheless, it remains focused on expanding the UK market.
The interim results show an investment write-down of £1.2 million. Fully diluted earnings per share fell from 43.95p to 41.86p. Despite the profit slide in the first half, the interim dividend is being raised from 5.38p to 5.92p. Adare said it was now well placed in Britain to benefit from the continuing trend of large organisations outsourcing their print requirements. Several major multimillion pound blue-chip contracts had recently been secured.
As part of its strategy to provide more data-driven and technology-based services, it plans to invest a further £10 million sterling in digital image management and data management acquisitions, "which together with their anticipated capital investment, will complement the growth activities". Internal sources will fund these.
