New products boost restructured RTS

Technology group RTS’s restructuring of its global operations, allied with new products and contracts in its core areas, helped the company post strong half-year results.

Manchester-based RTS said the disposal of its two US plants and changes in management structure, plus improved performance in the nuclear, advanced robotics and pharmaceutical sectors, were behind a 22 per cent rise in turnover to £22.5m, compared to the same period in 2004. Operating profit also rose by a third during the six months to £1.6m.

The company expressed particular satisfaction with its nuclear arm, which enjoyed 36 per cent growth in turnover, despite market uncertainty surrounding formation of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority in April.

An increase in its activities at Sellafield was complemented by further work at the UK’s Magnox power stations and a first order to carry out work at the Dounreay plant. RTS said its position in the nuclear industry has been bolstered by a teaming arrangement to exploit opportunities in the Canadian market.

RTS chairman Chris Brown said: ‘The first half of 2005 has demonstrated that the disposal of the US operations, and the changes in management structure implemented last year, have transformed the performance of the group. With new Life Science products coming on stream and further market penetration by our Nuclear Solutions and Flexible Systems divisions, we believe that the prospects for profitable growth remain strong.’

Flexible Systems, the advanced robotics division of the business, has doubled its turnover since 2004 and secured its biggest order to date for the food sector, from Müller. It has continued work on a powder impression moulding process for plastics moulding company 3DM and on a robotic bomb disposal system for Remotec.

The company said its Life Science product development programme has reaped early rewards with the completion of the prototype Smartstore, a unit for storing samples, which was exhibited in September at the SBS conference in

. It has also started work on a blood fractionation system for the UK Biobank project, a government initiative to build up a health information databank.