The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Profits boost for Dundee tachograph company
Firm has benefited from legislation changes
Increasing sales helped profits to more than double at Dundee tachograph firm Stoneridge Electronics last year.
The principal activities of the company – which is a wholly owned subsidiary of US-based Stoneridge Inc – are the manufacture and distribution of tachographs, which record a vehicle’s speed and distance travelled.
The Dundee operation focuses on customer support and developing software to analyse drivers’ performance.
Newly filed accounts at Companies House show sales at the Claverhouse Industrial Park firm rose from £16 million to £17.8m for the year ending December 31.
The accounts include the global firm’s branches in France and Spain where the company operates distribution centres.
The company’s pre-tax profits increased from £270,000 to £584,000 last year.
Director Amanda Robertson, who heads the aftermarket division in Dundee, said: “It’s been a fantastic year. We continue to do very well in terms of growth of the top line and bottom line.
“The main growth has been in Turkey, which was a new market for us, and the US where a legislation change came in December.
“There is another legislation change for Europe coming up next year – which applies to new vehicles from June – and we are looking to maximise the possibilities from that.”
Of the £17.8m sales, £4m took place in UK, £12.1m in the rest of Europe and £1.7m in the rest of the world.
The company plans to continue its growth within core EU markets by increasing its digital tachograph market share by adding new products and services. The Dundee site, which employs 65 people, will stop production of tachographs at the end of this year as part of a planned transition to focus more on the service and software side of the business.
The directors have considered the impact of Brexit and have identified no material risks although they continue to monitor the situation.
Stoneridge’s roots in Dundee can be traced back 70 years.
It started out in 1948 as Veeder-Root, manufacturing cash-sales counters for petrol pumps.
Then, in 1975, the company launched its first mechanical tachograph for heavy goods vehicles, to tap into a growing European marketplace.
The firm became TVI Europe in 1993, and then part of Stoneridge following an acquisition in 1999.