PACE ANNOUNCE INTERIM RESULTS

WEST Yorkshire based company Pace have recently announced their interim reports to December 2, 2000.
The results show that profit before tax increased 41 per cent to £17.9m, while earnings per share were up 41 per cent to 5.99 pence.
Turnover from the sales of Pace digital TV home gateways and additional services grew 31 per cent to £205.8 million. Business within the UK grew in value as shipments to Telewest and NTL increased and the UK represented 87 per cent of revenues. Overseas, Pace shipped significant quantities to Israel and New Zealand, but less than they would have wished to continental Europe. Shipments re-commenced to Televisa in Mexico. DSL shipments continued with Kingston in the UK and commenced with a number of new customers in North America. Vegastream began shipments, mostly in the US, of trial quantities of their VoIP office gateway.
Pace Chairman Sir Michael Bett said: “The results were achieved despite the most difficult supply environment in recent years. Shortages of components caused disruption to the manufacturing processes, and the achieved levels of revenue were only possible through the most exceptional efforts of our team. We expect more consistent supplies of components to be available this year, as seasonal demand for retail electronic products falls and new capacity comes on stream.”
Over the last 12 months, Pace have increased their engineering headcount by 41 per cent to 511 employees. The new staff are designing new products and cost-reducing existing products to ensure that Pace remains one of the leading providers of enhanced digital TV and VoIP technologies.
Pace currently have over 150 patent applications in progress. (GB)