News

Underlying profits at Quadnetics are likely to miss forecasts due to order delays and problems at its surveillance technology division, the CCTV and networked video systems supplier has warned.

The firm has recently won an order from a retail customer worth over £1m and another for European and North American casinos worth around £2m, lifting the total firm order book by 14% between the start of the year and the end of March to £31m.

But while the UK integrated systems and North American gaming businesses have done well, other areas have performed below expectations, the group admitted.

A number of large expected orders for Synectics surveillance products have been or may be delayed by customers and are now anticipated early next year.

Trading at Synectics has also been hit by cost overruns in the Defence and Offshore Oil & Gas applications sectors leading to significantly reduced margins on two large contracts.

In addition, delays in completing development of Synectics' new specialist digital video recorder will mean lower than expected customer deliveries of these products in the second half.

"Overall, the company expects to achieve solid organic growth in turnover for the year of round 20% compared with last year, to around £80m," it said.

"Trading for the final quarter of the current financial year looks set to be strong. With the order book continuing to grow well, and with Synectics' new product suite now coming on line, the company expects to have excellent momentum into 2008/9, and a considerably improved bottom line performance for next year as a whole."