Fountains, the provider of a swathe of environmental services in the UK, Ireland and Eastern USA, posted strong interim figures to March with all numbers moving in the right direction. Pre-tax profits put on a decent 20% to £635,000, on a 5% rise in sales to £18.6m, and investors were treated to an 18% dividend rise to 1p a share. Pre-goodwill earnings grew nearly 16% to 5p, leaving fountains, which sees better margins in the second half, well on track to deliver the 10.5p forecast by broker Collins Stewart for the year, from £1.5m of profit. Particularly pleasing was the cash generation, a 'key metric' for customer satisfaction - this increased from £731,000 to £937,000 on operating activities. And despite investment, mostly in equipment, closing net cash improved to £1.7m (£1.1m). The core utility services and grounds maintenance division, which carries out vegetation management for utilities as well as tree surgery, now makes up over 80% of the business, and did well on a 10% turnover rise. Forestry sales were lower than last year, although this was because the 2003 numbers were flattered by one-off billings of long-term incentive fees in the USA. Fountains has plenty of earnings visibility, boasting an order book of £70m with over 90% of planned turnover for the year already secured. Fountains currently trades on a multiple of 12.9. It looks pretty good value.