STRONG first-half trading pushed anti-counterfeiting company OpSec back into the black in the first half of the year.
The Washington company, which operates worldwide and counts around 40 governments and 100 firms making passports, bank notes, concert tickets and national ID cards as its clients, reported a £1.7m pre-tax profit for the six months to September 30.
That compared with a loss of £1.7m in the same period last year. OpSec reported a turnover of £25.5m from £19.9m.
OpSec’s government protection department, which takes in ID, bank note and high-security operations, increased its turnover by 45%.
This was mainly due to increased orders from a currency customer in Asia and an Eastern European government.
Revenues were up by 20% in the brand protection division, boosted by income from the Delta labelling business which OpSec bought last year. The Delta acquisition was completed in March and the company bought the New Jersey-based Holographic Security Business from JDS Uniphase Corporation in September.
Delta, which concentrates on brand protection in the fashion business, provided a distribution base in Hong Kong which OpSec is using to build its business in Asia.
The Holographic Security Business makes holograms for cards and products for secure government documents and brand protection customers. Its major clients include MasterCard, Visa and American Express.
OpSec said it has committed to a programme of investment in its sales and marketing to boost organic growth but the cost of this will “impact results” in the second half.
Chairman David Mahony said: “Given the order patterns of key government customers the second half of the financial year is not expected to be as strong as the first half of the year.
“However, the impact of the acquisitions noted above and the additional investment we are making in sales and marketing are expected to bring significant benefits over time.”
OpSec manufactures in the UK, US, Germany and the Dominican Republic, and has sales offices in the US as well as Hong Kong.
In its annual results published earlier this year, OpSec revealed a full-year pre-tax loss of £1.72m and a 5% dip in sales to £38.3m after losing its UK passport contract and a “significant government customer” in the US.
