VI Group reports 8 per cent growth for 2006

This represents an increase of eight percent from 2005’s £10.2 million (profit before tax up 57 per cent to £0.9 million), with this reflecting both organic growth and the effect of acquisitions made during the year. The two acquisitions announced during 2006 complemented the firm’s existing products and provided additional sales outlets, notably in Japan and Italy. The acquisition of an Italian company, Plastics and Computer International Srl was announced in June. The company develops and licenses software for the analysis and simulation of the flow of plastic materials within injection moulds. This sophisticated software allows its users to model accurately how different materials will perform inside the moulds and dies. It represents a new approach in the design process by allowing design or material problems to be fully investigated before manufacture, providing significant time and cost savings for the customer. As plastic injection moulding is already a significant sales sector for our current product lines this will facilitate the provision of both products and consulting services to the existing customer base. Camtek Ltd, a UK-based software developer, was acquired more recently in November 2006, and is VI’s largest acquisition to date. The purchase further extends its sales to other companies embedding VI software within their own products and gives the Group entry into the production sector. The US-based SMIRTware acquisition from 2005 produced a number of new products that were readily adopted by Ford and Daimler Chrysler as part of their respective efficiency drives, reports the company. VI Group has now made now made a total of eight acquisitions since floating on AIM. In Europe, sales in the UK, France and Germany grew strongly for both the new customer and existing user profiles. Italy remains the Group’s largest European market but suffered from the prevailing economic conditions in 2006. The company believes that Eastern Europe remains a potential growth market but lacks much of the infrastructure necessary for its dynamic development. Product development expenditure of £603,000 will be made for 2006 versus the previous year's £333,000.