Long ignored as a sleepy educational equipment company in its dotage, (it was founded 40 years ago), Feedback has awoken like a thoroughly modern Sleeping Beauty. Now, it provides net-based training to industry and technical training establishments worldwide.

Whether it was luck or good judgement, Feedback's management signed a mould-breaking deal in 1997 with the University of Lincolnshire and Humberside. The university had developed the Virtual Campus system with a £1 million grant from oil giant BP in 1995.

However, it needed a partner to market and sell the system while it continued to improve it technically. Feedback bought 50 per cent for a small payment and also has first rights on the university's shares.

The return of the Labour government turned that investment into a company-maker. The government is spending £200 million a year on long-distance learning and is setting up the University for Industry next year. Feedback is an important supplier.

TekniCAL, a separately run company, has taken advantage of the government's largesse scooping two-thirds of all network-based learning contracts in the UK as the grants pour through.

At the end of June, it had seven customers with 50 sites. Today TekniCAL has 12 customers with 65 sites and this rate of growth is expected to continue for another two years. Overseas contracts have been won at Beijing University and Sharjah in the UAE. A big EU contract is still under wraps. A US marketing campaign starts next month.

'TekniCAL is successful because it is a management system designed by academics for use by academics', says Feedback managing director Andrew Whiteley. It is rated more highly than most of its dozen or so competitors because of its flexibility and unique ability to accommodate practical work as well as theoretical content.

The system works for any organisation wishing to educate its students, staff or members. 'Its application is not confined to colleges. Every FTSE company has internal training and intranets and TekniCAL provide the software and know-how necessary', says Robert Corden of Feedback's broker, Charles Stanley.

Corden expects TekniCAL's profits to double to £400,000 this year and £800,000 next.

They will carry on growing fast after that as revenue from winning new contracts is at first supplemented then exceeded by publishing income from selling educational material. Repeatable annual income per contract varies from around £25,000 to £50,000 depending on the number of sites.

Feedback's other, far longer established business, is its instruments arm which lost £600,000 last year as Asian orders dried up for its educational packages. But it is recovering fast and should make a profit this year. The data division made a record £700,000 profit last year and continues to trade well. Group profits slumped to £182,000 against £557,000 in 1998.

There has been no dividend since 1995, though a resumption of payments is expected next year. Group profits could reach £1 million this year with £1.5 million possible the following year if the instruments side stages a full recovery. At 61.5p, the shares sell for about 14 times current-year earnings and only about 10 times next year's.

That is super value for a growth stock - especially since the TekniCAL side on its own looks to be worth about two-thirds of the current share price.

Feedback's convertible preference shares are probably the best way to buy in to the company. They can be swapped into ordinary shares twice a year on a one-for-five basis and yield about 3 per cent.