Spring 2006

Minorplanet, the company widely regarded as spearheading the drive into telematics in the UK during the 1990s, has jumped back into the limelight with a new hosted, Web-based tracking and fleet management system called VMIgreenlight.

Although Minorplanet already offered Web-based access within its existing product range, this is an all-new system, hosted externally by a specialist company. It appears to mark a bid to return to the limelight by the Minorplanet, which has been keeping lower profile over the past couple of years.

The launch follows a restructuring process that has been under way since last year, when the ten-year-old company completed a fund-raising exercise that assembled £11.2 million of new investment.

The turnround in fortune is underlined by the company's results for the year ending on 28 February, in which it turned a previous pre-tax loss of £3.1 million into a profit of £0.1 million.

 

Chairman David Perry says the company increased sales as the year progressed, and also reports healthy overall returns in its Irish and Australian subsidiaries.

In the past, Minorplanet was noted for its vigorous telesales-based marketing strategy, although it has also always put emphasis on technology and product development, and has tended to produce its own components where others might buy them in.