Magirus, the European mid-range systems distie, yesterday issued upbeat trading figures for the half year to September end. The mid-range systems distie said sales were up 16.6 per cent to €256m on last year, producing an operating profit up 30.1 per cent to &euro.

Sales were flat in Germany, its home country, but the Middle East, Scandinavia, France and Italy showed "strong development", while the UK, Switzerland and Austria, reported double-digit growth.

The company is forecasting full year sales of €620m (FY04: €544.3m) on the back of a strong order backlog, a good project pipeline, combined with strong oil price-supported growth the Middle East."

Magirus has been profitable for 12 years straight and it claims the results "proves that our constant focus on improving our value proposition is paying out, says Christian Magirus, COO. "We will drive this further by continuing to move Magirus' business up in the value chain. Our growth and profitability as well as the resulting independence allow us to decide in the best interest of Magirus which changes in the sales and channel models of our vendors we might follow and when we might go our own way". ®