Takeovers boost Alphameric
Article Date: Feb 06 2001Four acquisitions costing £76 million helped Alphameric, the retail and finance systems specialist, increase pre-tax profits by 139 per cent to £7.3 million in the year to last November on sales of £54.4 million, writes Nancy Daniel.
Takeovers boosted Alphameric's growth last year, but organic growth was also strong and underlying turnover increased 31 per cent. Comparable sales were ahead by 36 per cent during the period.
The company sells software and systems to what it describes as tier two retailers, such as clothing chain Matalan, and steers clear of more sophisticated retail players such as Marks and Spencer, and hopes to benefit from its customer's growth plans. Matalan, for example, has aggressive expansion plans which may require enhanced systems.
There is also room for development within the company's betting and finance division. Here Alphameric has been successful in selling its 'bet capture' software to large bookmakers, such as Coral. (The system digitally captures information from handwritten betting slips, speeding up collation and helping to prevent fraud).
Alphameric now plans to sell this software to the independent bookmakers, of whom there are around 5,000 in the UK. The company hopes to have made good inroads into this market.
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