Oxford pulls ahead
1 min read
Shareholders at the annual meeting of high tech tools and systems company Oxford Instruments heard yesterday (23 September) that despite the general economic uncertainty, sales and order intake to date were ahead of the same period last year.
Chairman, Nigel Keen (pictured), told the meeting that the company’s decision two and a half years ago to embark on a strategy to reposition the business towards future growth markets such as those benefiting from environmental legislation and nanotechnology investment was paying off.
The company was on course with its plan to double the size of the business in five years and improve profit margins by 10%, Keen said.
Since the start of the current financial year, Oxford had acquired two companies in line with its growth strategy. Technologies and Devices International Inc (TDI) was acquired in April and had a unique technology that facilitates the manufacture of energy efficient high brightness light emitting diodes. Work was currently underway to industrialise this process. A fabrication tool based on this technology is due for launch within 12 months.
In May, Oxford Instruments Nordiska AB was acquired, strengthening Oxford Instruments’ position in the important Nordic region.
Meanwhile, two of last year’s acquitions, Worldwide Analytical Systems AG and VeriCold Technologies GmbH, had been integrated successfully into the Oxford Instruments Group and were performing to plan.
