Set top boxes fuel Amstrad profit surge

Strong sales of set top boxes helped Amstrad return to profit in 1999.

The company said revenue for the year ending 30 June was £94.1 million, an increase of 77 per cent on the previous year's sales of £53.3 million.

Profit before tax was £8.4 million, excluding the £0.7 million profit arising from the disposal of the company's Betacom, Answercall and Cable & Wireless branded telephony business.

This compares with a loss before tax of £1.1 million last year.

Earnings per share were 7.5p compared with a loss per share of 1.3p last year.

In a statement issued today, the company said the significant improvement in its results was due to the move away from lower margin products towards focussing on a core product range developed by its in house technical design team, including set top boxes.

Amstrad is one of the four suppliers of set top boxes to BskyB. Deliveries of the products began last October and Amstrad said it recently received further orders from BskyB, which will contribute to the following and current financial year.

Company chairman Alan Sugar said Amstrad is still active in the telecommunications market and in April launched a new smartphone - called the Phonebook - with further products to be launched this year.

"This financial year has seen the benefit of our strategy of focussing on higher technology in house designed innovative products with a number of new products introduced," he said.

The benefit of these product introductions as well as the launch of other innovative products in the telecommunication and other consumer electronic markets lay a good foundation for the prospects of the current financial year."