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Higher sales and margins have delivered a 66 percent lift in first half profit for automation equipment maker Scott Technology.
Key numbers for the six months ended February compared with a year ago:
- Net profit $7.8m vs $4.7m
- Revenue $126.5m vs $113.8m
- Margins 26 percent vs 22 percent
- Interim dividend 4 cents a share
The Dunedin based company reported strong growth in its core businesses of making automated processing lines and robotics for the meat, materials handling and logistics, and mining, lifting revenue by 11 percent.
Chief executive John Kippenberger said the result was solid, with the company capitalising on sustained demand for its products.
"Global demand for automation remains strong as markets continue to experience labour shortages."
He said the company's strategy of focusing on sales of standard core products and services was delivering growth, despite the pressure of inflation, supply chain issues, and finding staff.
"We're continuing to roll out our proven technology such as warehouse automation and production facilities ... and that's means we're also building a large after market business which is servicing those contracts and that service business is now generating out 30 percent of revenue for Scott."
The company posted strong cash flow in part because of big deposits for confirmed large projects, which had resulted in a positive net cash balance of $12.8m compared to a similar sized deficit the year before.
Strongest sales were in Europe and North America, where it supplies equipment for the consumer food, meat, and packaging industries with customers including poultry processing machines for the retail giant Costco.
Kippenberger said the sales pipeline remained strong with $184m of forward orders.
The contracts include washing cabinets making machinery for China, materials handling systems for Australian building materials firm James Hardie Industries.
There was no full year forecast but Kippenberger was confident it would beat last year's normalised profit of $12.6m.