Dynamic exporter going public

Press, 28 November 1979, Page 25

Dynamic exporter going public

Delta Plastics, Ltd, will make a public issue of shares on January 1, says the company’s chairman and managing director (Mr John Burford). The phenomenal growth of the company, which is exporting more than 80 per cent of its total production, has already prompted financial speculation that its shares could be the “glamour buy of 1980.” Export sales in the past year were worth 54.4 M, and net profit was SI.4M. , The company earned a record profit for the current half-year, for the fourth successive year, of $780,000, an increase of 17.4 per cent on the same period last year. Sales world-wide "reached 55.6 M for the 1978-79 financial year, and projections for this year were for an in-

crease of a further 40 per! cent. “For the 1978-79 year we reached the point where 88 per cent of our total productions was exported. This! year we are going to improve on that again as the, current trend shows figures ■ of around 90 per cent export' production,” Mr Burford says. Market diversification for | world-wide sales of the company’s animal eartags have been extremely successful,; with 30 to 35 tonnes being air freighted out of- Palm-; erston North every month.. The main destination is the! United States, which bought; S2.BM worth of Delta prod- ' ucts last year. A company was recently |i established in New Yorks state to manufacture the tags under licence, and Delta has a 50 per cent share in a ' similar venture in France. |j

' The public float of shares, is a move to meet the financial needs of the company’s ■ rapid expansion. “There comes a time when 1 a company has to start look-i ing elsewhere for its funds! to meet expansion of such! magnitude,” says Mr Burford. ? More than S3M has been spent in the past three years on increasing production capacity, and recently Delta bought an extra four acres of land at the rear of its present site. The company has grown a little conscious of its “single-product” nature, and in the last two months has begun marketing its automatic teat cup remover on the local market, with satisfactory results. It has also been demonstrated at trade fairs in the United States.