Business

Andor affirms pledge to operation in north

TECHNOLOGY firm oxford Instruments insists it has "honoured its commitment" not only to retain, but to grow, its multi-million pound asset in Andor Technology. Oxford, which makes MRI maintenance systems and nanotechnology tools, paid £176 million in January to buy the west-Belfast scientific camera maker, one of the north's few floated companies.

There were fears at the time that Andor's 400-strong staff (including 250 in Belfast) could take a hit once their english owners got their feet under the table.

But oxford Instruments' chief executive Jonathan Flint said: "The integration of Andor Technology is going really well, better than we could have imagined. It is performing ahead of plan and we've actually added a small number of staff in Belfast."

And despite the departure last month of Andor's long-time managing director conor Walsh, who was largely instrumental in over-seeing the company's meteoric rise, Flint said there were no plans to further downsize.

"Andor brings an extra dimension to our business, and we haven't paid all that money to come in and start cost-cutting," he said.

"We see its acquisition as an important part of the next phase of our growth."

The oxford group delivered another successful year, with orders, sales and profits all ahead of the prior year.

Adjusted pre-tax profit rose a fraction to £47.1 million in the year to March, but significantly revenues rose 2.7 per cent to £360.1m, with a contribution of £27.4m from acquisitions in the period. Orders grew by 2.5 per cent to £342.2m, but adverse foreign exchange rate movements reduced sales by £5.9m.

"orders, sales and profits are all ahead of the prior year, which is hugely encouraging," Mr Flint said.

"We will continue to focus on developing innovative new products and growing market share in our core areas of physical science.

"In addition, we will seek to extend our reach into adjacent new markets by applying our tools and technologies to life science re-search and analysis.

"This convergence of the sciences will enhance long-term demand for our nanotechnology tools and enable us to reach a new set

of customers working in the nano-bio arena." He says the combined oxford-Andor alliance makes it "uniquely placed" to put together product that is both an atomic force microscope and an optical microscope. Oxford, which employs 2,000 people worldwide on 33 sites, is one of fastest-growing companies on the London Stock Market and part of its growth is about looking for new ways of doing nano- technology.