With Case Group Plc under its belt and a string of disposals in more mature businesses, Dowty Group Plc is a very different company to the one that reported this time last year, highlighted by the fact that while overall group turnover is up only 9.5% to UKP684m for the year to March, turnover of the Information Technology sector of the business rose 111%, on which Dowty made operating profits of UKP17.2m, up 91%. Aerospace and polymer engineering also contributed to the overall 23% increase in pre tax profits to UKP79.1m but Electronic Systems were dull, profit up 15% at UKP10.8m on sales flat at UKP141.3m. Dowty has also transformed itself into a thoroughly international player, its UK domestic market business being down not only as a proportion of the total but in absolute terms: at UKP285m, it fell 3% and now accounts for 42% of the total, down from 47% last year. The Americas come next with UKP180m, up 24%; and the rest of Europe put on 15% to UKP107m. Faster growth was seen the Far East, up 58% at UKP33.3m, but Africa was static at UKP7.4m. Within the businesses, Dowty seems to have shaken the bad patches out of Case and that business contributed UKP7.4m to profits for the seven months that it was part of the group. The order book in continuing business was 12% ahead of the 1988 figure at UKP662m.
