Performance improvement at 600 Group

Reporting an annual sales increase of 4% from £75.6m to £78.9m and pre-tax profit up 23% to £3.6m (£2.9m), the group, which is chaired by EEF boss Martin Temple (pictured), said it continued to make positive progress in the implementation of the strategy it had devised following a review in 2006. Temple said the company’s core strategy remained o develop a customer-focused business concentrating on the North American, UK and European markets and based on the two strategic growth platforms of machine tools and laser marking, supported by the group’s technologies business. The 600 Group’s relationship with its Chinese partners continued to form a key part of the its strategy. The agreement with Chinese machine tool company, The Dalian Machine Tool Group (DMTG), to establish a 50:50 joint venture, based in Germany, to market and distribute Dalian branded products across Europe was in the process of being finalised. As part of a cost reduction initiative the company last month commenced a redundancy programme of 70 employees in its North American and UK operations. It is anticipated that annualised savings of £2.1m will result from the workforce reduction. Looking ahead, chief executive Andrew Dick said that despite the challenging economic environment, the current year had begun with a healthy order book, including a major aerospace contract, and order levels remained reasonable during the first two months of the current year.