Vantis reports big jump in profits and turnover
Consolidator Vantis has announced a big jump in its first half turnover and profits, and says that it already back on the acquisition trail following a six-month break.
Link: Minimal profits’ impact for Barclays under IFRS
In the six months to 31 October 2004, the company brought in £15.1m revenue, 48% high than for the same period last year, while profits jumped a whopping 70% from £1.8m to £3m.
While much of this represents a boost from the acquisition of firms such as McBrides and Redhead French during the last year, Vantis revealed that organic growth had been at around 14% for both turnover and profit.
Paul Jackson, chief executive at Vantis, told Accountancy Age that the company had deliberately stopped its acquisition policy for the last six months to ensure that previous buys had embedded into the organisation properly. The move, however, was also to show the market that the firm was still growing of its own volition.
Jackson said that now that this had been proved, the company was ‘reactivating the pipeline’ and the company was hopeful of making an announcement on this front in the second half of the year, with more to come further down the line.
He maintained that the company would focus on maintaining its operating margins, and would not look to grow for growth’s sake.