Companies: CAE   

Business and IT consultant Charteris has reaped the rewards of a strategic realignment in 2007 by turning last year’s half-year loss into a profit.

Pointing to sales up 28 per cent to £11.4 million for the six months to the end of January and losses of £137,000 transformed into a £664,000 pre-tax profit, chairman Cliff Preddy extolled the company’s tactical nous. ‘This performance builds on the considerable progress that was made in the second half of full-year 2007, with the benefits of the strategic changes implemented in preceding periods flowing through,’ he said.

He refers to the decision taken to realign into three specialised service lines, 'customer centricity', 'integrated enterprise' and 'infrastructure optimisation'. These new propositions enabled many new client sales and saw particularly strong growth in retail, with good progress in public and financial services sectors.

Preddy stated that he believes these results provide a ‘robust platform for further profitable growth’, with acquisitions a possibility. ‘With reasonable allowance for the uncertainty that currently exists in the economy, the directors believe that the company remains on track to meet their expectations for the year.’

Arriving on AIM at 90p seven years ago, the shares have slipped to 13.75p last year but skipped up ten per cent on these new results to 19p.

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