Strong organic growth was behind eye-catching half-time figures to March from Andor Technology, the producer of high-performance digital cameras for the scientific research, life sciences and more recently the security sector.

Pre-tax profits more than doubled to £604,000 (2005: £223,000), sending basic EPS up 46% to 2.09p, on a record turnover, up 23% to £9.2m.

Management, led by managing director Dr Hugh Cormican, attributed the performance to operational factors, with lead times reportedly down to 15 days from 45 one year ago and productivity increased considerably.

An entry into the mid-range market has helped the group, with two new products recently launched, the spectrographic Shamrock 163 and another known as Luca. The first-ever sales catalogue for the sector, accompanied by revised online capabilities, helped to drive top-line growth during the half.

Organic growth remains the principal order of the day going forward, although Cormican confirmed strategic acquisitions were not out of the question.

Forecasts from joint broker Bridgewell envisage pre-tax profits increasing to £1.8m for the year to September, increasing to £2.2m in 2007. EPS is expected to rise also, with predictions of 5.6 and 6.2p respectively over the coming years, placing the 102.5p shares on forward p/e's of 18.3 and 16.5. Not budget stuff, but we believe the shares are worth holding for further growth.