CLOUD computing and internet hosting specialist Iomart is planning to launch a range of new services as it seeks to build on another strong year of growth.
Among the additions being considered are further products in data recovery and business continuity, while virtual desktops – allowing users to access their own home screens from any device or terminal – will be offered in the next few weeks.
The Glasgow company announced adjusted pre-tax profits – not including charges such as share-based payment, acquisition costs and amortisation on acquired intangible assets – rose 56% from £6.9 million to £10.7m.
That came on the back of a 29% increase in revenue from £33.5m to £43.1m across the 12 months to March 31 this year.
The growth was mainly driven by the 37% increase in revenue to £32m in the hosting division, which works with a number of SME and corporate customers.
That arm also delivered a record number of orders in the year with 800 agreements sealed with new and existing customers, up from 600 in the prior period.
The Easyspace division, which supplies email, domain names and other products to the small business market, was up 9% to £11.1m, boosted by acquisitions made during the past two years.
Across the whole business, around 50% of the growth came organically with the rest driven by acquisitions.
Chief executive Angus MacSween is confident of further significant growth in the coming years as consumers and businesses desire faster connections to access the internet through mobile devices along with growing demands for safe and reliable data management.
He said: "It is a creep to the cloud which will keep happening, I suspect, for the next 15 years. It is driven by lots of things, not least our behaviour changing with all our fancy devices we carry around with us."
Iomart said its first profit since concentrating on cloud computing had come three years ago with around a £1m gain on £18.3m revenue.
Since then, revenues have increased by 135% and profit before tax by 970%.
Mr MacSween said the company was in a strong position to add new products to keep up with changes in the market.
He said: "It is almost like a natural progression for businesses. They have to have their web-serving infrastructure at the centre of the internet, cloud or web, or whatever you want to call it, and that is what we provide.
"There is a constant incremental move to servers not being under people's desks but being in data centres.
"[New services will be] primarily around the storage layer in things like cloud storage, backup, disaster recovery and business continuity services.
"I think hosted desktops will start to take off in the next year or two as people want to go on whatever device they choose."
Iomart proposed to up its final dividend by 56% to 1.4 pence per share for 0.9p in the previous year.
The company has only drawn down £9m of a £20m war chest supplied by Lloyds Banking Group to fund acquisitions and is generating a positive net cash flow.
Mr MacSween admitted Iomart, which employs around 100 of its 275 staff in Glasgow, would continue to look for further deals in the sector.
He said: "Our customers are quite sticky but so are the customers of rivals so sometimes you have to just buy them.
"We are never really in the market to buy intellectual property, people skills or central capacity unless it comes as part of a deal.
"Primarily what we are looking for is good customer bases, as we know they will grow."
Analyst Jonathan Imlah, at Canaccord Genuity, said the results were in line with expectations and upped revenue and profit predictions for Iomart for 2014 and 2015.
Shares in Iomart closed the day down 7.38p, or 3%, at 241.38p.
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