Specialist IT solutions business Chelford continues to quietly impress, with pre-tax profits up 36% to £1.37m last year on a 22% increase in sales to £14.5m. A brace of acquisitions completed during 2005 appear to have given the company a further boost too.

As an enterprise software and supply chains solutions provider, Chelford’s products have historically been based on SAP technology, but the purchase of Shian in October has given the group a Microsoft-based offering for the first time. This is important, says chief executive Trevor Lewis, 'because some customers will only be interested in buying a Microsoft solution'.

In addition to this the company has snapped up Agility Systems, which addresses the supply chain sector via the provision of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. ‘We recently installed an RFID-based parcel tracking system for Geopost,’ notes Lewis, ‘and as the cost of the basic technology is plummeting I think the market is starting to take notice.’

Growth has brought its own strains. In the second half of last year, for example, the company was forced to outsource a considerable amount of work to satisfy customer demand at the expense of margin. Lewis insists this problem has now been resolved and with the shares trading on a prospective p/e of 11.5 (given forecasts of a £2.4m profit and 24p of earnings next year) Chelford remains good value.

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