‘Extremely strong’ gaming sector performance sees revenues hit £71m at security systems provider
Synectics, a leader in the design, integration, control and management of advanced surveillance technology and networked security systems, reported a rise in revenue to £71.2m in 2018.
Reporting on the full year to 30 November 2018, the Sheffield-based firm saw pre-tax profits slightly drop to £2.9m, down from £3m reported at the same period the prior year. Revenue, however, rose to £71.2m from £70.1m in 2017.
Synectics said that results from the gaming surveillance markets in Asia and the United States were “very strong,” and that the business also saw growth in sensitive and high profile infrastructure sites in the UK.
Paul Webb, chief executive of Synectics, told TheBussinessDesk.com: “We reported an extremely strong performance in gaming which has happened for a couple of years now. This is all in North America and and Asia, but all the high-end software is developed in Sheffield.
“This success has driven the results for the year, but the results were offset by quite a weak performance in the UK bus and coach market. We’ve seen this market decline for the last couple of years as it is a very tough sector for the operators. We also lost a fairly lucrative contract with a London operator during the year.”
Results for the year from the group’s global oil and gas and the UK on-bus sectors were “below expectations,” as those markets remain difficult. Synectics’ mobile surveillance business also suffered from the loss of a large contract renewal from a UK bus operator and a second customer taking its service work in-house.
Webb added: “As a result, we had to do some restructuring work in our UK bus operations, which took place in the last quarter. It is now a stronger business again but on a slightly smaller scale.”
The group’s balance sheet, however, continued to strengthen with net cash at 30 November 2018 of £8.1m, compared to £3.8m last year. The last of Synectics’ bank borrowings were repaid during the year.
The consolidated firm order book at the year-end fell to £21m from £24.4m at the same period the year before. The group said that this decline reflected primarily lower outstanding orders for on-bus surveillance systems and the timing of large contracts in other sectors.
Webb also said: “A strong performance in the Gaming sector offset by weak performance in the UK bus market produced a satisfactory result overall. The pipeline of identified new business that the Group expects to win and deliver in 2019 is strong, and we expect to benefit from growing momentum in certain market sectors.
“We are laying the foundations for an ambitious growth strategy that we believe will take the Company to new levels over the coming years.”
