ELECTRONICS specialist Computronics Corporation Limited announced major developments in its computerised farming equipment and electronic signs business at its annual general meeting last week.
The Technology Park-based firm announced that it had been successful in obtaining major contracts for electronic signs to be installed in Doha for the forthcoming Asian Games, along with electronic signage contracts at London’s 3M Innovation Centre in Bracknall UK and at Federation Square in Melbourne.
Computronics managing director Ole Hansen said the signage contracts would prove excellent visible reference sites for the company and collectively were worth more than $A5 million.
Mr Hansen said the major contract win was a $4 million deal to supply all of the electronic display products and timing equipment for the 15th Asian Games, to be held in Doha, Qatar, in December 2006.
The contract win is the largest secured to date by the Bentley-based electronics firm and provides a major boost to the company’s display products division.
Computronics plans to hire more staff to enable it to service the Qatar contract.
A total of 25 scoring display systems will be constructed under the terms of the contract, which involves a complete system of scoreboard and replay screens for the new purpose-built Khalifa Sports Centre.
“Having an Olympic venue, which will be fitted out completely by Computronics scoreboard-wise, as reference sites put us in a good position,” Mr Hansen said.
He said the Doha deal had made a significant contribution to the electronic display division’s budget.
Computronics also designs and manufactures a range of computerised farm equipment, including monitoring and control systems.
Mr Hansen said drought conditions throughout parts of Australia affected the computerised farm equipment division, while SARS and terrorism had caused a downturn in the construction, tourist and entertainment sectors, which affected the signage division of the company.
However, the company was still able to maintain its position despite the tough times and reported a company profit of $398,326 for the past financial year.
Further, he said, there would be opportunities for systems in Canada and the US in the next 12 months.
“Although the appreciation of the Australian dollar against the US dollar will reduce margins we still retain a competitive advantage internationally that we propose to exploit,” Mr Hansen said.
“There is a significant increase in profit expected for this current financial year.
“With what we’ve currently got on to the order books, we are confident that we will meet our forecast.”
Computronics listed on the ASX in January this year.