Ill wind blows good business to Zytronic

Jun 2 2009 by Chris Knox, The Journal

TOUCHSCREEN maker Zytronic plans to expand its headquarters and recruit 50 staff as it continues to beat the slump and roll out sales worldwide.

The firm is splashing out £3.2m to buy its 60,000sq ft space at Blaydon, Gateshead, to allow it to extend the buildings more easily in the future and make space for a workforce it plans to increase from almost 190 to more than 230 by the end of next year.

The two buildings, which include its £3m ZYPOS touchscreen manufacturing plant, sit alongside its 23,000sq ft offices and have each already been extended by 3,000sq ft between 2003 and 2006 to accommodate increased production. The firm was able to buy the property with the help of a £2.25m 10-year mortgage from Alliance & Leicester, with the balance coming from the company’s cash resources.

It recently posted a 58% increase in half-year profits to just over £1m to the end of March as its products sell to companies hit by the recession.

It said the success of its touchscreens were behind 60% of the growth and had prompted the firm to invest more resources in the product as opposed to its traditional range of optical filters and radio-frequency shields.

The firm, which also saw its turnover grow by 14% to almost £8m in the first half , did say it expects sales to stutter next January and February, which is when it traditionally sees a slowdown in the domestic and overseas ATM market. However, it expects to keep growing after this with the help of the purchase and believes it is on target to increase turnover by another 35% by the end of the year because firms hit by the recession will move towards automated customer service as their head counts reduce.