Elektron PLC develops eco products.

edit 21st May 2007...

New switches now being marketed...

http://www.electronicstalk.com/news/bul/bul126.html

Elektron is starting to lead the way with eco friendly products. They have a number of new products they are now starting to market in particular an electronic cooker hood switch that can sense when to switch itself on from the cooking fumes and an electronic switch that cuts an iron off if it hasnt been used in a pre determined time. These products are sure to go down very well.
Arcolectric has already benefited from various product designs and this press release from Reading University is very interesting.....

http://www.reading.ac.uk/about/newsandevents/releases/PR194.asp

"Reading student is 'Most Enterprising Student 2005'
Release Date : 08 September 2005
University of Reading student Mark Chatterton is celebrating after winning the Shell STEP Award for the 'Most Enterprising Student' in the central southern England area. Mark scooped the award at a ceremony at the University on Monday 5 September for his work at Surrey-based Arcolectric Ltd.The firm chose Mark, who studies Electronic Engineering, to work on the challenging summer project. In just eight weeks, Mark, 20 managed to design and build a prototype mains rocker switch incorporating a low-cost microcontroller to count mains frequency cycles and disconnect the switch after a pre-determined time.The project has resulted in immediate benefits for Arcolectric, with one manufacturer expressing an interest in purchasing 750,000 units of the product he created.Winner Mark said: "I am thrilled to have come this far in a nationally-recognised competition. I have learned so much this summer, which I am confident will stand me in good stead when I apply for jobs in the future."Presenting the award, Dr Virginie Ruiz, chair of the judges, added: "Congratulations to Mark for winning this award. Achieving what he has in just eight weeks is no mean feat, and I'm confident this will impress future employers."Craig Ollier, 21, and studying Management and Business Administration at Reading, was 'Highly Commended' for his work with @UK. He had to develop a business plan to expand the company into other areas of the world.Shell STEP is a national programme arranging structured summer work placements for students at small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs). It matches undergraduates to SMEs with specific development projects, in order to develop the students' workplace skills. While at the host company, students can put the theory they've learnt at university into practice.As part of the programme support process, students learn about the small business sector and have the opportunity to develop many core skills, such as time and project management, which increases their employability significantly.In the process, the projects can also increase the growth and innovation potential of the host business. Most small businesses involved are convinced by Shell STEP of the value a student project can deliver, with 96% of last year's SME participants stating that they would offer further opportunities to students in the future.Mark beat 12 other local finalists, and he will now go forward to the Shell STEP Regional Final the Shell Centre in London on Wednesday 14 September. More than 1,000 STEP projects took place over the summer this year in the UK overall. "

An investers thoughts....

Reviewing my investments this week end and by coincidence, my profit/loss on EKT is 0p today after 2 years...Now some would say that is a bad investment...but then they, i bet, have held investments that have gone tits up over similar periods of time....and this has not.The fact is, huge profits and loses are invariable linked to high risk and in my opinion, EKT has shown its self to be very low risk and, considering the ups and downs of the markets over the last few years, it has remained a safe place to leave some cash.The downside has been tested with market slumps and a falling dollar...a difficult period in any companies year must be the closing of a production plant and the opening of a new one but this too has been carried out with no adverse affect on production or delivery. Cost have been cut and cash generated has been shrewdly invested to generate more cash and further diversify the core business.The management have not gone the risky, boom/bust route in an effort to attract the traders and rocket the SP...instead they have steadily cut cost with the move abroad for production and assembly, expanded the core business at a sustainable rate with acquisitions(production and property)and opened up new possibility's with far Eastern customers..The upside is we now have money invested in a proven stable company, an expanding company, and a company that has a proven track record of reliability for the investor when times are not so good in the markets.#It would have been nice to buy in now rather than 2 years ago but if we had a crystal ball to tell us these things...well wouldn't life be simple..As it is i think that we will hear from EKT in the next month and i think It will be good news ! ..sure if you want to gamble and take bigger risks you could make quick bucks else where if you are lucky ;-) but i think the proportional, likelihood of making good money here for very little risk is a better bet. With that in mind, I will be adding to my holding here :-)