Financial highlights

Financial highlights

	2004	2003	change
Turnover	£614.2m	£568.0m	+8%
Operating profit*	£65.2m	£59.8m	+9%
Profit before tax*	£51.1m	£48.9m	+4%
Profit after tax	£24.7m	£26.0m	-5%
Earnings per share*	32.1p	32.1p
Basic earnings per share	20.4p	21.6p	-6%
Dividend	14.50p	13.35p	+9%

^*Before exceptional items and goodwill amortisation

Sales up 8%, operating profit up 9% driven by:

• Increased demand in Asia
• Successful new product introductions

Gross margins of 57%
At constant currencies:

• 11% organic growth in sales
• 25% organic growth in operating profit
• 0.8 percentage point improvement in operating margins

Asia now accounts for 24% of group sales
Dividend up 9%

Organic growth at constant currencies represents the growth (in sales or profits before exceptional items and goodwill amortisation) excluding acquisitions and disposals, at constant exchange rates.

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