Higher margin sales boost Stadium profits

7th Sep 2011 07:32

Electronic product manufacturer Stadium posted a rise in profits and unveiled plans to push sales higher under new chief executive Stephen Phipson.The company, which has manufacturing facilities in the UK and China, saw pre-tax profits in the half year to 30 June rise to £1.58m from £1.45m. Revenues edged up to £23.2m from £23.13m. Sales grew strongly at Stadium Power, a higher margin business than Stadium Electronics, which saw sales decline. Stadium Electronics makes equipment for smart metering, low energy lighting and other uses, while Stadium Power makes power supplies for medical equipment, gaming machines and other devices."The appointment of Stephen Phipson as chief executive is ideally timed to capitalise on the wealth of exciting opportunities which exist to grow the business," said Stadium Group chairman Nick Brayshaw. "The company's strong balance sheet sees it ideally placed to grow both organically and through targeted acquisitions."Phipson was previously president of Smiths Detection, the airport scanners arm of the FTSE 100-listed industrial company Smiths Group. He said that Stadium is planning to invest in sales teams in the UK, Europe and Asia."We are mindful that there are signs of a slowdown in demand within the UK economy and also on a global basis, hence we are anticipating some softening in the existing core business over the second half of the year," Stadium said. "However, we expect that any weakness will be off-set by the introduction of the new key customer wins which were achieved during the first half of the year."At 13.35pm, shares in Stadium were up by 1.6% at 65.5p.---RG