NVT profits up 20% before major contract

NVT Group, Scotland's largest independently owned IT solutions company, increased pre-tax profits in 2009 by a fifth to £629,000 despite a 3 per cent drop in turnover to £6.03 million.

For the first four months of the year to January 2010, the North Lanarkshire-headquartered business also recorded pre-tax profits of 235,000, a third up on the same period in the previous year, with turnover up by almost 20 per cent at 2.42m.

All of these figures pre-date the start of the potentially substantial contract awarded to the business by the Central Government Centre of Procurement Expertise (CGCoPE).

Under this contract, which started on 1 February this year, NVT provides desktop hardware support services for PCs, laptops, printers and scanners to partner organisations of CGCoPE as part of central government's drive to reduce the costs of its IT operations whilst improving levels of service.

The contract runs for three years, with the option of extending for a further year.

NVT is providing services from the outset for the Scottish Government, Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, Scottish Court Service, Scottish Prison Service and National Galleries. Other central government organisations are expected to join.

Stephen Park Brown, managing director of NVT, said: "We have been working hard for many years to build a business which could withstand recession by developing our customer base amongst professional partnerships, local authorities and the owner-managed business sectors."