BCO Technologies, the Belfast electronics company which gained share quotations in Dublin and London last December, is performing worse than anticipated. It has alerted shareholders to expect higher losses this year than indicated in its prospectus.
BCO was quite optimistic at the interim stage. However, it was hit on two fronts in the second half. First, one customer's demands were less than anticipated. Second, supply to another customer "ceased due to technical difficulties specific to that customer", BCO said. That loss necessitated a write-off of work in progress amounting to £200,000. BCO now expects to incur a trading loss of not more than £4.5 million in 1998. This contrasts with an illustrative projected loss of £2.4 million. BCO said it incurred significant repair expenditure due to the failure of some key equipment and this additional expenditure will impact negatively on the result for the second half of the year. The increased capacity installed, in anticipation of greater volumes, "represented a significant step upward in our manufacturing cost base".
These problems are being addressed, according to BCO. There has been a detailed review of manufacturing and a number of board changes have been made. These include the appointment of Mr Michael Black - from Pricewaterhouse-Coopers - as finance director, and Mr Bernard Dillon - a former chief executive of Amdahl Ireland - as a non-executive director. In addition it is in the final stages of recruiting an operations director. BCO raised £10 million last year. Its shares are quoted on London's Alternative Investment Market and on Dublin's Developing Companies Market.
