Judges Scientific PLC announced on Thursday that pretax profit fell despite a ‘record’ performance across other metrics.

In 2023, the London-based company focused on acquiring and developing businesses in the scientific instrument sector, saw its profit before tax fall 16% to GBB13.4 million from £16.0 the year before.

Meanwhile, revenue increased by 20% to £136.1 million from £113.2 million.

In light of these results Judges Scientific maintains its policy of increasing the dividend by a minimum of 10% per year.

The company announced a final dividend of 68.0 pence per share, reflecting a 15% increase from 59.0p. This brings the total dividend per share to 95.0p, from 81.0p.

In multiple areas the company performed well, beating its previous records in organic order intake, revenue, cash generation and adjusted earnings per share.

Judges Scientific attributed the slump in profit to increased borrowing costs and £8.4 million worth of amortisation charges relating to its 2022 acquisition of the Daventry, England-based geological equipment manufacturer Geotek Ltd.

The company said: ‘We were pleased to have navigated the inflationary environment and to have maintained margins at our organic businesses. The supply chain difficulties, previously encountered by the group, mostly abated during the year which enabled our businesses to increase capacity, thereby reducing lead-times for our customers, and returning the order book back to more usual levels.’

Looking ahead the company started the year with ‘a healthy order book’ and said exchanged rates remain favourable.

However, the company acknowledged that the legacy impact of Covid-19 may put pressure on research budgets around the world as governments contend with budget deficits.

Judges Scientific shares were down 6.6% to 10,836.00 pence in London on Thursday afternoon.

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