Wynnstay Group

'One of the original Ofex children', agricultural supply business Wynnstay moved to Aim with a £1.5m placing at 190p. Managing director Bernard Harris shifted to Aim to boost liquidity and raise Wynnstay's profile. Despite gloomy conditions in agriculture, Wynnstay has scored sevenfold turnover growth since 1987 and Harris has ambitions to grow sales to £150m within five years, with the help of acquisitions. Trading in Wales, the Welsh border counties, the Midlands and Staffordshire, the firm has three divisions - feeds, stores and arable - as well as interests in joint ventures and associate companies. Intriguingly, the arable division, which supplies products and services to grain and grass farmers, is one of the UK's biggest distributors of Kemira fertiliser products. Meanwhile, stores performed particularly well in the quarter to January, and there's a fast-growing pet food business in the division's midst. Wynnstay has about 27,000 trading accounts and tons of cross-selling potential. In the year to October, sales rose to £85m (£81m), and profit before interest would have risen from £2.2m to £2.48m but for an unusually big bad debt pegging profits back to £1.9m. Apart from the recent bad debt hiccup, Wynnstay has shown consistent eps growth, and has funded recent deals from cashflow. Ungeared at the year-end with net assets topping £16m, the shares are worth a look at current levels. WH Ireland is the broker and adviser.

Sector: Food Producers

Companies: Wynnstay

Market cap: £17m

PE Forecast: n/a

Share price: 200p