Business Weekly - Cambridge, UK

Pre-tax profit climbed 22 per cent to £24.7m (2003: £20.3m) and sales growth was up over eight per cent at £178.3m (2003: £164.4m).

The Cambridge firm’s share price finished up 7 pence at 268 pence on the back of the results.

Peter Byrom, Domino chairman, said the performance had been fuelled both by strong organic sales growth and through the acquisition of two new businesses.

“Wiedenbach in Germany enhances our capabilities in certain sectors of the market including electronics and cable and wire marking, and Purex in the UK is a world leader in fume extraction and purification systems for laser and other applications.”

The company added that trading at the start of the year was in line with expectations and that as a global business reporting in sterling, it “would meet the challenge of the weaker US dollar” which took five per cent off the year’s sales total.