Depressed demand for buttons hurts Dewhurst

8th Dec 2015 09:52

(ShareCast News) - Improved profits, though slightly lower sales were the overriding themes for Dewhurst in its preliminary annual results on Tuesday.The AIM-listed button and switch manufacturer saw sales fall 1.4% for the period, to £45.9m. Profit before tax was up a sizeable 11%, however, to £5.3m, which the company confirmed was a record figure by a small margin.Dewhurst said the year was muted in terms of sales, with numbers down for the transportation and lift divisions and broadly flat for the keypads business.It was a different story for the firm's offshore operations, however."After last year's strong performance in the UK, sales dropped back this year, whereas all but one of the overseas companies achieved better revenues", said chairman Richard Dewhurst."There are signs of potential future improvement in the UK with project activity quite high, but timing of orders uncertain."Dewhurst confirmed a dividend for 2015 of 13p per share, up 44% on 2014.