Annual results from Aim-traded Skelmersdale-based Flowtech Fluidpower (FLO:118.5p), the UK's leading specialist supplier of technical fluid power products, made for a very interesting read.
Flowtech’s main distribution business offers more than 100,000 individual product lines to more than 80,000 industrial maintenance, repair and overhaul end-users in the UK and Benelux through a network of around 5,000 distributors and resellers. It also has a power motions controls (PMC) division that designs, assembles and supplies engineering components and hydraulic systems.
Having made a series of acquisitions since IPO in 2014, new chief executive Bryce Brooks, who took the reins last autumn, has bolstered the board and set out a statement of intent to extract “the considerable synergy potential [from acquisitions] by focusing on cross-selling opportunities, improved procurement terms from major suppliers, optimising Flowtech’s operating cost base, and making efficient use of the working capital base". A group credit manager was appointed in the fourth quarter of 2018 with the intention of improving cash collection rates, reducing the amount of capital tied up in working capital, improving stock turn and the return on invested capital in the business.