Pegasus Group Plc is attempting to re-establish its good brand name as it expands its product range beyond accounting software to boost sales, according to shief executive Jonathan Hubbard-Ford. The Kettering, Northamptonshire-based company saw pre-tax profits fall 97% to ú243,000 from turnover down 36% at ú4.8m. The group’s acquisition of QDC Systems Ltd at the end of last year (CI No 2,572) resulted in a new Pegasus division, Operations, being created. The eponymous manufacturing software product is a 15-module suite of programs that is centred around Pegasus Opera. It will be integrated with Pegasus’ flagship accounting software. Pegasus Capital is an entry-level Windows product, available in April, while Opera for Windows complements the MS-DOS version of Pegasus’ best-selling software and is planned for release in May or June. Connection is Pegasus’s move into the area of sales and marketing contact management, available in April or May. The company is also developing Pegasus Edition, which will provide electronic data links to Opera and Capital that will initially be aimed at the retail sector when it is released in April. Work is well under way on a new headquarters building in Kettering which will bring the staff, currently in two locations, together under one roof in a move planned for the autumn. The board recommends a final dividend of three pence, giving an unchanged total of 5p for the full year.
