Oxford Metrics PLC on Tuesday reported a slump in profit during the first half of its financial year, as costs rose amid inflationary pressures.

The Oxford, England-based smart sensing and software company provides services to life sciences, entertainment and engineering customers.

In the six months that ended March 31, pretax profit fell 17% to £2.8 million from £3.4 million a year before.

Revenue rose 11% to £23.5 million from £21.3 million, but sales, support and marketing costs grew by 25% to £4.5 million from £3.6 million. Similarly, administrative expenses also rose by 59% to £5.9 million from £3.7 million.

The company increased the sum paid out as dividends by 9.0% to £3.6 million in the recent half-year from £3.2 million a year before. With 131.3 million shares in issue, this is about 2.74 pence per share.

Oxford Metrics shares were down 9.2% to 102.60 pence each in London midday Tuesday.

‘We enter the second half with a growing sales pipeline well ahead of this time last year and greater than 90% visibility of full-year revenues. We continue to deploy internal and external resources into merger and acquisitions,’ the company said.

The company acquired Didcot, England-based automated quality control firm, Industrial Vision Systems Ltd in October for a provisional consideration of £8.1 million.

‘[The acquisition] has been a successful move, it’s performing well and we are excited about the opportunity to drive yet more applications into the smart manufacturing space,’ said Chief Executive Imogen Moorhouse.

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