Cellnet ANZ is back in the black and has reportedly managed to turn its profit around for the financial year ending June 30.
Net profit for the ANZ group reached NZ$1.8 million (A$1.5 million). Last year, Cellnet recorded an NZ$8 million loss (A$6.7 million), and since then has managed a turnaround of $NZ9.5 million (A$7.9 million).
Earlier this year Cellnet managing director Stuart Smith said the turnaround reflected its strong focus on core business lines along with a leaner and more efficient organisation.
Cellnet chairman, Sandy Beard, said its journey over the last couple of years had turned it into a big loss making company and since its restructure, it has managed to turn itself into a profitable business.
“We cleaned up the balance sheet,” says Beard. “We’re sticking to the products that we can make good money out of, we’ve been working better with our customers and have been concentrating on doing all the little things right.”
The distributor has cash reserves of about A$20 million. During FY10 about 1 million in shares were bought back and it is now well groomed for merger or acquisition opportunities.
Beard said it was more interested in acquiring companies that would create shareholder value.
“We’ve got an open mind,” he says.
The distributor claimed it would continue to grow across ANZ and is hopeful it would be able to improve its earnings in the first half of the new financial year.
Beard said it relied on a strong retail economy to gain good results in FY11.
“We're linked to the economy and a good retail economy always helps,” he says.