International growth boosts Stadium Group revenues

Integrated technologies provider Stadium Group announced on Tuesday that group revenues had increased 12.7% to £27.4m for the six months ended 30 June.

The Reading-based firm also reported a record order book of £30.8m, up 19% in the half as it eyed further international growth after establishing its new Swedish design centre and setting up Stadium Group Inc to gain greater access to market opportunities in the US.

Pre-tax profits rose 93% from £709,000 to £1.96m.

Revenue grew across both core divisions of Stadium Group, with technology products posting a 21% increase to £16.8m, while its electronics assembly arm saw a smaller 1.9% increase to £10.6m.

The bump in its technology products wing came primarily from new business design wins with US customers in the half after the establishment of its Salt Lake City office provided a direct presence in North America.

While its electronic assemblies division saw a slight rise in sales, overall margins dropped down to just 7.7% due to increased material costs.

"The division continues to operate in a challenging environment with pressure on pricing and over-supply in the market," said Stadium. "To mitigate this pressure we have accelerated the reconfiguration of our manufacturing capability to provide opportunities for vertical integration for our Technology Products division."

Debt increased 65% to £6.5m with Stadium left holding £3.3m in cash and equivalents at period end.

Nick Brayshaw OBE, chairman of Stadium Group said, "We are very pleased with our performance in the first half of the year and the progress that we've made in establishing our position as a successful design-led technology business.

"We believe that our operating model, focused around strategically located regional design centres, manufacturing centres of excellence and regional fulfilment centres, will allow us to deliver further accelerated growth going forward. The continued positive momentum seen in the first half is further underpinned by our record order book and strengthening pipeline of new design wins which provides us with confidence in the full year outlook and beyond."

Basic earnings per share at the half were 4.3p, a 15% year-on-year uptick.

As of 1235 BST, shares were down 6.04% to 117.45p.