Strong interim results for Amor Group

Global business technology provider, Amor Group – which specialises in solutions for the aviation industry – has reported strong interim financial results, with turnover and profit ahead of target.

The half year results, for the six months up to 30 June 2010, show EBITDA for the group’s trading arm, Amor Business Technology Solutions Ltd, is ahead of budget at £2.6million.

Turnover for the six months was £16.5million, up from £15.4million in 2009 and 7% ahead of target.

Amor Group provides business technology solutions, professional services and managed services to the energy, transport and public sectors and its first set of results, announced earlier this year, showed annual turnover of £30million, with continued growth forecast for this year.

As part of its ongoing expansion, Amor Group has created 77 new jobs in Aberdeen, Glasgow, Coventry and Edinburgh, taking the total number of employees to more than 400.

Major wins in 2010 have included work in the public sector, such as a £3.9million professional services contract with Ofqual, the regulator of qualifications, examinations and assessments in England.

Energy contracts included a five-year support contract with Centrica Energy Hydrocarbon Resources Ltd, worth £500,000, and a $750,000 (USD) contract with the National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago to design and install a gas management system for the Cross Island Pipeline system in the Caribbean.

Transport wins included a £200,000 deal with Oslo Airport for its passenger tracking system, PAXTrax+.

John Innes, Chief Executive Officer of Amor Group, said the positive interim results supported the company’s aim of doubling turnover to £60million by 2012.

“It has been an extremely successful year for us so far, with our turnover and profit already ahead of target, and we have won new contracts across all areas of the business, valued at around £23million,” he said.

“To support this, we have created 77 new posts, ranging from software developers to sales directors.

“We have developed programmes such as Commit, our Corporate Social Responsibility programme, and nominated ENABLE Scotland as our chosen charity for the year.

“We also introduced ACT – a programme to transform health, safety and environmental performance at Amor Group through direct employee involvement – and have entered into an innovative new expertise sharing partnership with Aberdeen’s Robert Gordon University.”

Among the company’s key investments was the £750,000 expansion of its data centre in Aberdeen, to meet the fast growing demand for remotely hosted and managed IT services. The work will more than double capacity at the centre, which is already used by several major oil and gas operators.

Mr Innes said the company had invested in the expansion of its Aberdeen data centre in direct response to increased demand. The facility is unique in the north of Scotland, but it can service clients from across the globe.

“An increased number of businesses are now outsourcing their ICT services to data centres because of the range of benefits – providing secure environments, support from highly skilled ICT professionals and freeing up time to concentrate on core business activity, as well as removing pressure on office space and being more environmentally friendly,” Mr Innes added.

“Moving forward, we expect our customers to increasingly rely on third parties like us to design, assemble and deliver the ICT processes, applications, and infrastructure to support their business so it was a strategic decision to invest in increased capacity at our data centre.”

With more than 20 years experience in the business technology industry, Amor Group is headquartered at India of Inchinnan, Glasgow, with offices in Aberdeen and Edinburgh as well as Coventry and Houston, Texas.

Total turnover for Amor Group for 2010 is forecast to be £32.7million and projected profits stand at more than £6million.