IDE has reported a revenue of £65 million for its last financial year, thanks mostly to the three firms it acquired.
IDE, which was formerly known as Cortex, saw sales for the year ending 31 December 2017 spike 50 percent on the previous year.
In 2016 the company bought Selection Services and C4L Group and took over 365 ITMS in a £4.6 million deal last April.
365 ITMS contributed £10.4 million to the overall revenue during the nine months it was under IDE’s ownership last year.
IDE’s interim chairman Bill Dobbie said: “2017 has been a year of continued investment and building upon the foundational work that commenced in 2016. Concurrently with this investment, we delivered 18 per cent organic revenue growth and achieved significant sales success.
“Fundamentally, this illustrates the competitiveness and relevance of our portfolio of products and services within our target market.
“Our intention for 2018 is to complete the integration of the three businesses we have acquired in the last two years, significantly reducing our cost bases and becoming more focused on sustainable, recurring margins than revenue growth.”
It was not all good news, IDE saw operating losses widen from £3.8 million in 2016 to £12.5 million last year.
The group said that in 2017 a number of high margin legacy contracts came to an end, and that a number of managed services contracts were one-off deals rather than recurring agreements.
IDE commissioned a “lifecycle facility” in Dartford, in response to demand from customers to refresh devices.
As a result of “disappointing cash generation” IDE embarked on what it referred to as a “major cost reduction programme” in January which will see it reduce overheads and shave £2 million from its personnel costs.
It added that further costs reductions will be necessary to make the business profitable .
