Companies: EKT   

Formerly known as Bulgin, Elektron has been struggling with the downturn, and its components division in particular has been hit hard by the economic downturn, resulting in a group pre-exceptional, pre-tax profit of £39,000 for the half year to 31 July, compared to £530,000 last year. After goodwill and restructuring costs the loss was £502,000. Group turnover was up 8% to £8.7m because of the contributions from acquisitions Milmega and AFI. This was made up of components sales (down 27% to £5.2m) and power electronics revenues (up 133% to £3.5m). At the half-year stage the former's order book was 25% down on the same time last year at £1.5m, while the latter's was 5% shy at £3.8m. Nevertheless, the company is still looking at making further acquisitions to follow those of Isle of Wight firm Milmega, US-based AFI and Cambridge rail electronics company Powertron, the latter which was picked up for £1.15m in August. £1m sits in the bank, making for net assets of £5.3m.