Westminster Group swings to profit on Covid-19 product boom
By Sean Farrell
Date: Friday 14 Aug 2020
(Sharecast News) - Westminster Group swung to a first-half profit as the company achieved a big revenue increase as booming sales of Covid-19 detection and safety products more than offset the impact on its airport security division.
Pretax profit for the six months to the end of June was £0.24m compared with a loss of £0.79m a year earlier as revenue rose 24% to £7m.
Services revenue fell to £2.2m from £2.5m as the company's west African airport and training revenues were affected by Covid-19 but the drop was cushioned by the acquisition of aviation security business Euro Ops, income from Ghana Tema port and strong passenger west African airport numbers before closure.
Westminster's technology division's revenue rose 54% to £4.7m as sales more than quadrupled to £3.4m from £0.8m. One of the world's biggest investment management companies bought fever screening and sanitisation equipment for all of their offices and several US football clubs bought screening equipment.
Chief Executive Peter Fowler said Westminster started planning for the impact of coronavirus in January by securing supply chains and buying more of products such as detection and safety equipment to maximise revenue.
Fowler said: "These results, against a backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic, are an outstanding achievement due, in part, to our multiple revenue stream business model and is a testament to the dedication and hard work of all our employees, some of whom have been isolated overseas for several months.
"These uncertain times present both challenges and opportunities for Westminster, and over the next few months and years we have an opportunity to build on our current achievements and our year on year growth, with the potential for step changes in revenues from the many prospects we are pursuing."
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