Scantronic director resigns

THE FINANCE director of Scantronic resigned yesterday as the supplier of security alarms said that it expected pre-tax profit this year to be not less than pounds 2.75m but that it would be unable to pay a final dividend due to cash-flow difficulties, writes Diane Coyle.

Net indebtedness had risen from pounds 7.6m at the end of March to pounds 11.2m at the end of June as a result of a dollars 2.5m ( pounds 1.7m) investment in March in Arius, a US distributor, and expansion at Alarmexpress, a UK distribution subsidiary acquired last October, it said. A month ago Scantronic reported that trading conditions had been difficult in April and May, leading to higher- than-expected stock levels.

The company said: 'Owing to weaknesses in our finance functions, the full cash-flow implications of these matters were not properly appreciated for some time. In the light of the above, Ray Dias is resigning as finance director.'

Scantronic reported a significant improvement in trading conditions in June and July and has appointed John Singer, a consultant to the group, as acting finance director.