Homeland security specialist drives towards growth
DIGITAL Barriers, the parent company of Yorkshire surveillance company COE, has reported an increase in revenue as it looks towards further growth and a drive towards profitability after seeing a “defining” period in its international growth strategy.
The homeland security specialist announced that its revenue increased to £23.3m (2012: £15.0 million) generating an adjusted loss before tax of £7.6m (2012 loss: £6m).
The firm, which acquired Leeds-based COE, now part of the group’s product division, in a deal valuing it at around £3.3m, in 2010, said that £22.9m of the £23.3m revenue was delivered from existing product and service revenue streams, and £0.4m was contributed by acquisitions in the period.
Dr Tom Black, executive chairman of Digital Barriers, said: ”The combination of strong sales momentum and the quality of relationships we have built with key partners and customers around the world, combined with our increasing portfolio of world-class products and the strength of our engineering team, gives me confidence in our ability to grow revenue significantly and drive towards profitability.
“Our now proven business model and strategy gives the board confidence in the growth prospects of the Group.”
Digital Barriers said it has retained its focus on regions and countries where economic conditions are favourable and propensity to buy British security technology is high.
It said: “We believe that continued success in our UK home market, backed up by strong growth in Asia Pacific, strong customer interest and initial sales traction in the Middle East and the selection of our core technologies by US customers, fully validates our strategy to sell integrated world-class surveillance technologies to the international defence and security sectors.
“In both the Middle East and much of Asia, significant funds are available for security spending now and in the long term. In addition, in newer potential markets for the company, such as Brazil, spending on core security projects is driven by these factors as well as specific events and local trends.
“Export sales are a critical part of our growth strategy and we have continued to invest in strengthening and broadening our international sales force in Asia-Pacific, the US and the Middle East, from hubs in Singapore, Washington DC and Dubai, respectively. Fully integrated sales force management means that, despite running a highly distributed sales force, identified sales prospects are substantially stronger than this time last year.”
The business provides advanced surveillance technologies to governments, multinational corporations and system integrators in the international defence, law enforcement, critical infrastructure, transportation and natural resources sectors.
