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New Zealand Listed Company MHM Automation today announced its decision to pay shareholders a special dividend of 1.5 cents per share.

Continued growth in global demand for automated solutions and the sale of its New Plymouth workshop saw the company report a strong financial performance at the release of its 2021 financial results and Annual Report last month.

MHM Automation reported an after-tax profit of $4.1 million, which was a 339% increase on the previous year’s result. Revenue for the year was $50.9m, a 6.1% increase on 2020, and the full year EBITDA increased by 50% to $3.73m. The growth was primarily driven by a strong performance from its Milmeq chilling and freezing business as well as a one-off gain of $1.9 million from the sale of its New Plymouth engineering workshop.

“This performance would not have been possible without the support of our shareholders. The board of directors considers it appropriate to pay the one-off dividend to shareholders in recognition of the strong trading performance we’ve had over the last year. The funds for this dividend are coming from the proceeds of the sale of the New Plymouth property,” CEO Richard Rookes said.

“I am pleased to see the momentum we’ve been building over the past few years continue and we remained focused on strengthening our automation business while also improving profitability,” he added.

MHM Automation services the global dairy, meat, horticulture and food processing sectors.

Rookes said the COVID-19 pandemic had meant its customers were increasingly looking to automation to ease the challenges of social distancing and ensure compliance with food safety standards, as well as addressing labour shortages and health and safety concerns. But delivering projects during the pandemic had been challenging, due to resource constraints and restrictions on international travel, particularly the MIQ system.

“Achieving this high level of performance in a COVID-19 world is testament to our team, and the strength and relevance of the products and solutions we design and deliver,” he said.

Looking ahead, MHM Automation is forecasting good workflows right through the 2022 financial year and beyond. The automation business has orders scheduled for delivery into 2023, and all areas of the business are running at or near capacity for the remainder of the 2021 calendar year.

The company remains cognisant of opportunities for additional future acquisitions to align with its technology-led future.

Demand for automated solutions is forecast to continue to increase.

“With our portfolio of industry-leading solutions, we are well positioned to continue our trend of growth. The next 12 months will be focused on the execution of current work, improving margins, and building a sustainable pipeline of new opportunities globally,” Rookes said.