Jasmin rises on fragrant figures
Article Date: Jun 18 2002After two years of losses, IT hardware and software business Jasmin has made an emphatic return to form, posting a £716,000 profit before tax (£645,000 loss) for the year to March on turnover up 87 per cent at £7.1 million. Elliott Davis reports.
Chairman Roger Plant claims the figures demonstrate that techMARK-listed Jasmin (JAS) is now 'back up-and-running again'. And, if a recent deluge of contracts is anything to go by, the company's future certainly seems bright.
According to Plant, Jasmin's forward order book currently stands at more than £17 million spread over three years. Some £9 million of this is due by March 2003.
In the first three months of the current year Jasmin has received orders to the value of £3 million. The largest of these, announced last week, is worth £730,000 and will see it supply a range of security detection equipment to a 'major Far East customer'.
Jasmin's other main target markets also continue to look promising. In addition to providing CCTV equipment, the company develops passenger information systems for the transport industry and supplies nuclear, biological and chemical detection systems to the defence sector.
In particular, Plant hopes that Jasmin will pick up further business from individual railway stations. It recently supplied a passenger information system to Sunderland and eventually hopes to secure up to 300 similar orders from this sector.
Then of course there is the much-anticipated overhaul of London's Underground network. This should generate plenty of business once the Department of Transport and Mayor Ken Livingstone come to an agreement as to how the work will be funded.
Shares in Jasmin, which is hoping for a £1 million profit from £10 million of sales this year, rose 2.5p to 235p on the day.
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