ANS doubles profits thanks to new customers - Crain's Manchester Business

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8:37 am, July 25, 2008
ANS doubles profits thanks to new customers

ANS Group, the Manchester Science Park-based software firm, saw its pre-tax profits more than double in the year ended March after the group added new customers.

It also said its performance in the three months to the end of June was ahead of the same period last year despite business becoming more difficult to close.

In a statement, Plus-listed ANS said that pre-tax profit rose to £1.4m in the 12 months to the end of March, from £600,000 in a year earlier. Revenue meanwhile increased 64 per cent to £10.29m.

ANS said that turnover grew in all parts of the business, with the unified communications and wireless division performing particularly well. Turnover at the division grew by more than 200 per cent to £3.8m following a £500,000 investment aimed at expanding the team and enhancing its credentials as a reseller of Cisco software. Following the end of the financial year, ANS was named as a gold partner, making it the only reseller to have attained top accreditations with Cisco, Microsoft, Novell and VMware.

In addition, revenue at the group’s storage and virtualisation division increased 54 per cent, while security and identity management saw growth of 42 per cent.

The overall group gross margin increased by 47 per cent to £3.2m, though as a percentage, the gross margin eased from 35 per cent to 32 per cent.

ANS said that while it is confident of a positive outlook in the current year, it is aware of the negative sentiment in the economy at the moment and said business has become more difficult to close. However, it said it is operating in growth areas and has a large public sector client base, which is very focussed on efficiencies.

In addition, ANS recorded a one-off profit of £253,000 relating to the flotation of Smart Identity and the reduction of ANS’ stake to 31 per cent.

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